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ROMAN ANTIQUITIES 



AND 



ANCIENT MYTHOLOGY; 



FOR CLASSICAL SCHOOLS. 



CHARLES K. DILLAWAY, 

PRINCIPAL OF THE PUBLIC LATIN SCHOOL IN BOSTON. 



SECOND EDITION. 



BOSTON: 
LINCOLN, EDMANDS & CO. 

CARTER, HENDEE AND CO. BOSTON; COLLINS AND HANNAYj 

NEW YORK; KEY AND MEILKE, PHI LADELFHIA ; 

CUSHING AND SONS, BALTIMORE. 

1833. 



ZD57 



/?. 



Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1S33, 

By Lincoln, Edmands & Co. 

In the Clerk's office of the District Court of Massachusetts. 



POSITION OF THE PLATES. 



. 1, before the title page. 


2, before 


page 27. 


3, « 


« 71. 


4, « 


« 78. 


5, - 


« 82. 


6, « 


« 90. 


7, « 


" 108. 


8, - 


" 133. 



fyTmwfer 

D. C Public Utory 

WAY 1 1 tgaf? 



Z3 



PREFACE 



The editor has endeavored in the following pages to give 
some account of the customs and institutions of the Romans 
and of ancient Mythology in a form adapted to the use of 
classical schools. 

In making the compilation he has freely drawn from all 
creditable sources of information within his reach, but chiefly 
from the following : Sketches of the institutions and domestic 
customs of the Romans, published in London a few years 
ince; from the works of Adams, Kennett, Lanktree, Mont- 
aucon, Middleton and Gesner : upon the subject of Mythol- 
ogy, from Bell, Spense, Pausanias, La Pluche, Plutarch, 
Pliny, Homer, Horace, Virgil, and many others to whom 
reference has been occasionally made. 
Boston, July, 1S32. 



In the second edition now offered to the public much has 
been added to the department of Antiquities. A more com- 
prehensive chapter upon the weights, measures and coins of 
the Romans has been substituted in the place of the former 
one, and many other improvements made which it is hoped 
will be found acceptable. As it was not thought expedient 
to increase the size of the volume, the additions have been 
made by excluding the questions. 

Boston, May, 1833. 



CONTENTS. 



Chap. Page. 

1. Foundation of Rome and division of inhabitants - 9 

2. The Senate - - 13 

3. Other divisions of the Roman people 18 

4. Gentes and Familiae, Names of the Romans - 19 

5. Private rights of Roman citizens 21 

6. Public rights of Roman citizens 23 

7. Places of worship ------ 24 

8. Other public buildings ----- 26 

9. Porticos, arches, columns, and trophies 30 

10. Bagnios, aqueducts, sewers, and public ways - 32 

11. Augurs and Auguries 33 

12. Aruspices, Pontifices, Quindecemviri, Vestals, &c. 34 

13. Religious ceremonies of the Romans - 37 

14. The Roman year ------ 39 

15. Roman games -------42 

16. Magistrates ------- 44 

17. Of military affairs ------ 49 

18. Assemblies, judicial proceedings, and punishments 

of the Romans ------ 53 

19. Roman dress ------ 57 

20. Fine arts and literature ----- 59 

21. Roman houses ------ 61 

22. Marriages and funerals ----- 63 

23. Customs at meals - QQ 

24. Weights, measures, and coins 67 



MYTHOLOGY. 

1. Celestial Gods ------ 71 

2. Celestial Goddesses ------ 77 

3. Terrestrial Gods ------ 82 

4. Terrestrial Goddesses - - - - - 87 

5. Gods of the woods - 94 

6. Goddesses of the woods ----- 101 

7. Gods of the sea 106 

8. Tartarus and its Deities ----- 111 

9. The condemned in Hell _ _ - - 

10. Monsters of Hell - - - - - - 126 

11. Dii Indigites, or heroes who received divine honors 

after death ------- 128 

12. Other fabulous personages - 146 



ROMAN ANTIQUITIES 



CHAPTER L 



Foundation of Home and Division of its Inhabitants. 

Ancient Italy was separated, on the north, by the 
Alps, from Germany. It was bounded, on the east and 
north-east, by the Adriatic Sea, or Mare Superum ; on the 
south-west, by a part of the Mediterranean, called the 
Tuscan Sea, or Mare Infer -urn ; and on the south, by the 
Fretum Siculum^ called at present the strait of Messina. 

The south of Italy, called Grmcia Magna, was peo- 
pled by a colony from Greece. The middle of Italy con- 
tained several states or confederacies, underthe denomina- 
tions of Etrurians, Samnites, Latins, Volsci, Campanians, 
Sabines, &c. And the north, containing Gallia Cisalpina 
and Liguria, was peopled by a race of Gauls. 

The principal town of the Latin confederacy was 
Rome. It was situated on the river Tiber, at the distance 
of sixteen miles from its mouth. 

Romulus is commonly reported to have laid its 
foundations on Mount Palatine, A. M. 3251, B. C. 753, in 
the third year of the 6th Olympiad. 

Rome was at first only a small fortification ; under 
the kings and the republic, it greatly increased in size ; 
but it could hardly be called magnificent before the time 
of Augustus Cassar. In the reign of the Emperor Valerian, 
the city, with its suburbs, covered a space of fifty miles; 
at present it is scarcely thirteen miles round. 

Rome was built on seven hills, viz. the Palatine, 
Capitoiine, Quirinal, Esquiline, Viminal, CEelian, and 
Aventine ; hence it was poetically styled " Urbs Septicol- 
fis,"— * the seven-hilled city. 
2 



10 ROMAN ANTIQUITIES. 

The greatest number of inhabitants in Rome was four 
millions ; but its average population was not more than two 
millions. 

The people were divided into three tribes, and each 
tribe into ten curiae. The number of tribes was afterwards 
increased to thirty-five. 

The people were at first only separated into two ranks ; 
the Patrician and Plebeian ; but afterwards the Equites or 
Knights were added ; and at a later period, slavery was 
introduced — making in all, four classes: Patricians, 
Knights, Plebeians, and Slaves. 

The Patrician order consisted of those families whose 
ancestors had been members of the Senate. Those 
among them who had filled any superior office, were con- 
sidered noble, and possessed the right of making images 
of themselves, which were transmitted to their descendants, 
and formed part of their domestic worship. 

The Plebeian order was composed of the lowest class of 
freemen. Those who resided in the city, weie called 
" Piths urhana ;" those who lived in the country, " Plebs 
rustica." But the distinction did not consist in name on- 
ly — the latter were the most respectable. 

The Plebs urhana consisted not only of the poorer me- 
chanics and laborers, but of a multitude of idlers who 
chiefly subsisted on the public bounty, and whose turbu- 
lence was a constant source of disquietude to the govern- 
ment. There were leading men among them, kept in pay 
by the seditious magistrates, who used for hire to stimulate 
them to the most daring outrages. 

Trade and manufactures being considered as servile 
employments, they had no encouragement to industry; 
and the numerous spectacles which were exhibited, partic- 
ularly the shows of gladiators, served to increase their nat- 
ural ferocity. To these causes may be attributed the final 
ruin of the republic. 

The Equestrian order arose out of an institution as- 
cribed to Romulus, who chose from each of the three 
tribes, one hundred young men, the most distinguished 
for their rank, wealth, and other accomplishments, who 
should serve on horseback and guard his person. 

Their number was afterwards increased by Tullus Hos- 
tilius, who chose three hundred from the ^lbans. They 
were chosen promiscuously from the Patricians and Plebe- 
ians, The age requisite was eighteen, and the fortune 



ROMAN ANTIQUITIES. 11 

four hundred sestertia ; that is, about 14,000 dollars. 
Their marks of distinction, were a horse given them at the 
public expense, and a gold ring. Their office, at first, 
was only to serve in the army ; but afterwards, to act as 
judges or jurymen, and take charge of the public revenues. 

A great degree of splendor was added to the Equites by 
a procession which they made throughout the city every 
year, on the 15th day of July, from the temple of honor, 
without the city to the Capitol, riding on horseback, with 
wreaths of olives on their heads, dressed in the Togas pal- 
matse or trabeae, of a scarlet color, and bearing in their 
hands the military ornaments, which they had received 
from their general, as a reward for their valor. At this 
time they could not be summoned before a court of justice. 

If any Eques was corrupt in his morals, or had diminish- 
ed his fortune, the censor ordered him to be removed from 
the order by selling his horse. 

Men became slaves among the Romans, by being tak- 
en in war, by way of punishment, or were born in a state 
of servitude. Those enemies who voluntarily surrendered 
themselves, retained the rights of freedom, and were called 
* Dedititii' 

Those taken in the field, or in the storming of cities, 
were sold at auction— "sub corona" as it was called, be- 
cause they wore a crown when sold ; or " sub hasta," be- 
cause a spear was set up where the auctioneer stood. These 
were called Servi or Mancipia. Those who dealt in the 
slave trade were called Mangones or Venalitii : they were 
bound to promise for the soundness of their slaves, and not 
to conceal their faults ; hence they were commonly expos- 
ed for sale naked, and carried a scroll hanging to their 
necks, on which their good and bad qualities were spec- 
ified. 

Free-born citizens could not be sold for slaves. Parents 
might sell their children ; but they did not on that account 
entirely lose the right of citizens, for, when freed from 
slavery, they were called ingcnui and libertini. The same 
was the case with insolvent debtors, who were given up to 
their creditors. 

There was no regular marriage among slaves, but their 
connexion was called contubernium. The children of any 
female slave became the property of her master. 

Such as had a genius for it were sometimes instructed 
in literature and liberal arts. Some of these were sold at 



12 ROMAN ANTIQUITIES. 

a great price. Hence arose a principal part of the wealth 
of* Crassus. 

The power of the master over his slave was absolute. 
He might scourge or put him to death at pleasure. This 
right was often exercised with great cruelty. 

The lash was the common punishment; but for certain 
crimes they were to be branded in the forehead, and some- 
times were forced to carry a piece of wood round their 
necks, wherever they went, which was called furca; and 
whoever had been subjected to the punishment was ever 
afterwards called furcifer. 

Slaves also, by way of punishment, were often confined 
in a work-house, or bridewell, where they were obliged to 
turn a mill for grinding corn. When slaves weie beaten, 
they were suspended with a weight tied to their feet, that 
they might not move them. When punished for any capi- 
tal offence, they were commonly crucified ; but this was 
afterwards prohibited under Constantine. 

If the master of a family was slain at his own house, and 
the murderer not discovered, all his domestic slaves were 
liable to be put to death. Hence we find no less than four 
hundred in one family punished on this account. 

Slaves were not esteemed as persons, but as things, and 
might be transferred from one owner to another, like any 
other effects. They could not appear in a court ol justice 
as witnesses, nor make a will, or inherit anything, or serve 
as soldiers, unless first made free. 

At certain times they were allowed the greatest freedom, 
as at the feast of Saturn, in the month of December, when 
they were served at table by their masters, and on the Ides 
of August. 

The number of slaves in Rome and through Italy, was 
immense. Some rich individuals are said to have had sev- 
eral thousands. 

Anciently, they were freed in three different ways:— ■ 
1st, Per censum, when a slave with his master's knowl- 
edge inserted his name in the censor's roll. 2d, Per vin~ 
diet am t when a master, taking his slave to the praetor, or 
consul, and in the provinces to the pro-consul or pro-prsetor, 
said, " I desire that this man be free, according to the cus- 
tom of the Romans" — and the prsetor, if he approved, put- 
ting a rod on the head of the slave, pronounced, — " I say 
that this man is free, after the manner of the Romans.'* 
Wherefore, the lictor or master turning him round in a cir~ 



ROMAN ANTIQUITIES. 13 

e!e, and giving him a blow on the cheek, let him go ; signi- 
fying that leave was granted him to go, wherever he pleased. 
3d, Per testamentum, when a master gave his slaves their 
liberty by his will. 



CHAPTER II. 

The Senate. 

The Senate was instituted by Romulus, to be the per 
petual council of the republic, and at first consisted only 
of one hundred, chosen from the Patricians. They were 
called Patres, either on account of their age or the pater- 
nal care they had of the state. After the Sabines were 
taken into the city, another one hundred was chosen from 
them by the suffrages of the curiae. 

Such as were chosen into the Senate by Brutus, after 
the expulsion of Tarquin the proud, to supply the place 
of those whom that king had slain, were called Conscripti; 
that is, persons written or enrolled together with the Sena- 
tors, who alone were properly called patres. 

Persons were chosen into the Senate first by the kings, 
and after their expulsion, by the consuls, and by the mili- 
tary tribunes ; but from the year of the city 310, by the 
censors. At first, only from the Patricians, but after- 
wards, also from the Plebeians — chiefly, however, from the 
Equites. 

Besides an estate of 400, or after Augustus, of 1200 
sestertia, no person was admitted to this dignity but one 
who had already borne some magistracy in the Common- 
wealth. The age is not sufficiently ascertained, probably 
not under 30. 

The dictator, consuls, praetors, tribunes of the commons 
and interrex, had the power of assembling the Senate. 

The places where they assembled were only such as 
had formerly been consecrated by the augurs— and most 
commonly within the city. They made use of the temple 
ofBellona, without the walls, for the giving audience to 
foreign ambassadors, and to such provincial magistrates as 
were to be heard in open Senates, before they entered the 
city, as when they petitioned for a triumph, and in similar 
cases. When the augurs reported that an ox had spoken, 
2 * 



24 SOMAN ANTIQUITIES* 

which we often meet with among the ancient prodigies, the 
Senate was presently to sit, sub dio, or in the open air. 

The regular meetings {senatus legitimus) were on the 
Kalends, Nones, and Ides in every month, until the time 
ot Augustus, who confined them to the Kalends and Ides, 
The senatus indictus was called for the dispatch of business 
upon any other day except the dies Comitialis, when the 
Senate were obliged to be present at the Comitia. 

The Senate was summoned anciently by a public officer, 
named viator, because he called the Senators from the 
country — or by a public crier, when anything had happen- 
ed about which the Senators were to be consulted hastily 
and without delay : but in latter times by an edict,appoint- 
ing the time and place, and published several days before, 
The cause of assembling was also added. 

If any one refused or neglected to attend, he was pun- 
ished by a fine, and by distraining his goods, unless he had 
a just excuse. The fine was imposed by him who held 
the Senate, and pledges were taken till it was paid — but 
after 60 years of age, Senators might attend or not, as they 
pleased. 

No decree could be made unless there was a quorum. 
What that was is uncertain. If any one wanted to hinder 
the passing of a decree, and suspected there was not a quo- 
rum, he said to the magistrate presiding, " Numera Sena- 
turn" count the Senate. 

The magistrate who was to preside offered a sacrifice, 
and took the auspices before he entered the Senate house. 
If they were not favorable, or not rightly taken, the busi- 
ness was deferred to another day. Augustus ordered that 
each Senator, before he took his seat, should pay his devo- 
tions with an offering of frankincense and wine, at the al- 
tar ol that god in whose temple the Senate were assembled, 
that they might discharge their duty the more religiously. 
When the consuls entered, the Senators commonly rose up 
to do them honor. 

The consuls elect were first asked their opinion, and the 
praetors, tribunes, &,c. elect, seem to have had the same 
preference before the rest of their order. He who held the 
Senate, might consult first any one of the same order he 
thought proper. 

Nothing could be laid before the Senate against the 
will of the consuls, unless by the tribunes of the people, 
who might also give their negative against any decree by 



SOMAN ANTIQUITIES 15 

the solemn word " Veto, 7 ' which was called interceding, 
This might also be done by all who had an equal or greater 
authority than the magistrate presiding. If any person in- 
terceded, the sentence was called " Senatus auctoritas" 
their judgment or opinion. 

The Senators delivered their opinions standing ; but 
when they only assented to the opinion of another, they 
continued sitting. 

It was not lawful for the consuls to interrupt those who 
spoke, although they introduced in their speeches many 
things foreign to the subject, which they sometimes did, 
that they might waste the day in speaking. For no new 
reference could be made after the tenth hour, that is, four 
o'clock in the afternoon, according to our mode of reckon- 
ing. 

This privilege was often abused, but they were forced 
to stop by the noise and clamour of the other Senators. 
Sometimes magistrates, when they made a disagreeable 
motion, were silenced in this manner. 

The Senators usually addressed the house by the title of 
" patres conscripti :" sometimes to the consul, or person 
who presided, sometimes to both. 

A decree of the Senate was made, by a separation of the 
Senators, to different parts of the house. He who presid- 
ed, said, " Let those who are of such an opinion pass over 
to that side, those who think differently, to this." Those 
Senators who only voted, but did not speak, or as some say, 
had the right of voting, but not of speaking, were called 
pedarii, because they signified their opinion by their feet, 
and not by their tongues. When a decree was made with- 
out any opinion being asked or given, it was called "sena- 
tus consultant per discessiunem." 1'ut if the contrary, it 
was simply called "Senatus coiisultum." 

In decreeing a supplication to any general, the opinion 
of the Senators was always asked. Hence Cicero blames 
Antony for omitting this in the case of Lepirius. Before 
the vote was put, and while the debate was going on, the 
members used to take their seats near that person whose 
opinion they approved, and the opinion of him who was 
joined by the greatest number was called " Sententia max- 
ime frequens." 

When affairs requiring secrecy were discussed, the clerks 
and other attendants were not admitted : but what passed, 
was written out by some of the Senators, and the decree 
was called taciturn. 



16 ROMAN ANTIQUITIES* 

Public registers were kept of what was done in the Sen- 
ate, in the assemblies of the people, and courts of justice; 
also of births and funerals, of marriages and divorces, &c 
which served as a fund of information for historians. 

In writing a decree, the time and place were put first ; 
then, the names of those who were present at the engross- 
ing of it ; after that, the motion with the name of the mag- 
istrate who proposed it ; to all which was subjoined what 
the Senate decreed. 

The decrees were kept in the public treasury with the 
laws and other writings, pertaining to the republic. An- 
ciently they were kept in the temple of Ceres. The place 
where the public records were kept was called " Tabula- 
rium." The decrees of the Senate concerning the honors 
conferred on Caesar were inscribed in golden letters, on 
columns of silver. When not carried to the treasury, they 
were reckoned invalid. Hence it was ordained under Ti- 
berius, that the decrees of the Senate, especially concern- 
ing the capital punishment of any one, should not be car- 
ried there before the tenth day, that the emperor, if absent 
from the city, might have an opportunity of considering 
them, and if he thought proper of mitigating them. 

Decrees of the Senate were rarely reversed. While a 
question was under debate, every one was at freedom to ex- 
press his dissent; but when once determined, it was looked 
upon as the common concern of each member to support 
the opinion of t v he majority. 

The power of the Senate was different at different times. 
Under the regal government, the Senate deliberated upon 
such affairs as the king proposed to them, and the kings 
were said to act according to their counsel as the consuls 
did afterwards according to their decrees. 

Tarquin the proud, dropped the custom handed down 
from his predecessors, of consulting the Senate about every 
thing; banished or put to death the chief men ot that or- 
oer, and chose no others in their room ; but he was expell- 
ed from the throne for his tyranny, and the regal govern- 
ment abolished, A. U. 243. Afterwards the power of the 
Senate was raised to the highest. Everything was done by 
its authority. The magistrates were in a manner only its 
ministers. But when the Patricians began to abuse their 
power, and to exercise cruelty on the Plebeians, especially 
after the death of Tarquin, the multitude took arms in their 
own defence, made a secession from the city, seized on 
Mons Sacer, and created tribunes for themselves, who at- 






ROMAN ANTIQUITIES. 17 

tacked the authority of the Senate, and in process of time 
greatly diminished it. 

Although the supreme power at Rome belonged to the 
people, yet they seldom enacted anything without the au- 
thority of the Senate. In all weighty matters, the method 
usually observed was that the Senate should first deliberate 
and decree, and then the people order. 

The Senate assumed to themselves exclusively, the guar- 
dianship of the public religion ; so that no new god could 
be introduced, nor altar erected, nor the Sybiline books 
consulted without their order. They had the direction of 
the treasury, and distributed the public money at pleasure. 
They appointed stipends to their generals and officers, and 
provisions and clothing to the armies. They settled the 
provinces which were annually assigned to the consuls and 
praetors, and when it seemed fit, they prolonged their com- 
mand. They nominated, out of their own body, all am- 
bassadors sent from Rome, and gave to foreign ambassa- 
dors what answers they thought proper. They decreed al! 
public thanksgivings for victories obtained, and conferred 
the honor of an ovation or triumph with the title of impera- 
tor on their victorious generals. They could decree the ti- 
tle of king to any piince whom they pleased, and declare 
any one an enemy by a vote. They inquired into all pub- 
lic crimes or treasons, either in Rome or other parts of It- 
aly ; and adjusted all disputes among the allied and depen- 
dent cities. They exercised a power not only of interpret- 
ing the laws, but of absolving men from the obligation of 
them. They could postpone the assemblies of the people, 
and prescribe a change of habit to the city, in cases of any 
imminent danger or calamity. 

But their power was chiefly conspicuous in civil dissen- 
sion or dangerous tumults within the city, in which that sol- 
emn decree used to be passed ; " That the consuls should 
take care that the republic should receive no harm." By 
which decree an absolute power was granted to them to 
punish and put to death whom they pleased without a 
trial ; to raise forces and carry on war, without the order 
of the people. 

Although the decrees of the Senate had not properly the 
force of laws, and took place chiefly in those matters which 
were not provided for by the laws, yet they were understood 
always to have a binding force, and were therefore obeyed 
by all orders. The consuls themselves were obliged to sub- 



18 ROMAN ANTIQUITIES. 

mit to them. They could be annulled or cancelled only by 
the Senate itself. In the last ages of the republic, the au- 
thority of the Senate was little regarded by the leading 
men and their creatures, who by means of bribery obtained 
from a corrupted populace what they desired, in spite of 
the Senate. 

Augustus, when he became master of the empire, retain- 
ed the forms of the ancient republic, and the same names 
of the magistrates ; but left nothing of the ancient virtue 
and liberty. While he pretended always to act by the au- 
thority of the Senate, he artfully drew everything to him- 
self. 

The Senators were distinguished by an oblong stripe 
of purple sewed on the forepart of their Senatorial gown, 
and black buskins reaching to the middle of the leg, with 
the letter C in silver on the top of the foot. 

The chief privilege of the Senators was their having a 
particular place at the public spectacles, called orchestra. 
It was next the stage in the theatre, or next the arena or 
open space in the amphitheatre. 

The messages sent by the emperor to the Senate were 
called epistolse or libelli, because they were folded in the 
form of a letter or little book. Csesar was said to have 
first introduced these libelli, which afterwards were used 
on almost every occasion. 



CHAPTER III. 

Other Divisions of the Roman People. 

That the Patricians and Plebeians might be connected 
together by the strictest bonds, Romulus ordained that 
every Plebeian should choose from the Patricians any one 
he pleased, for his patron or protector, whose client he was 
called. 

It was the duty of the patron to advise and defend his 
client, and to assist him with his interest and substance. 
The client was obliged to pay the greatest respect to his 
patron, and to serve him with his life and fortune in any 
extremity. 

It was unlawful for patrons and clients to accuse or bear 
witness against each other, and whoever was found to have 



ROMAN ANTIQUITIES. 19 

done so, might be slain by any one with impunity as a vic- 
tim to Pluto, and the infernal gods. 

It was esteemed highly honorable for a Patrician to have 
numerous clients, both hereditary and acquired by his own 
merit. In after times, even cities and whole nations were 
under the protection of illustrious Roman families. 

Those whose ancestors or themselves had borne any 
curule magistracy, that is, had been Consul, Praetor, Cen- 
sor or Curule Edile, were called nobiles, and had the right 
of making images of themselves, which were kept with 
great care by their posterity, and carried before them at 
funerals. 

These images were merely the busts of persons down to 
the shoulders, made of wax, and painted, which they used 
to place in the courts of their houses, enclosed in wooden 
cases, and seem not to have brought out, except on 
solemn occasions. There were titles or inscriptions writ- 
ten below them, pointing out the honors they had enjoyed, 
and the exploits they had performed. Anciently, this 
right of images was peculiar to the Patricians ; but after- 
wards, the Plebeians also acquired it, when admitted to cu- 
rule offices. 

Those who were the first of their family, that had raised 
themselves to any curule office, were called homines novi, 
new men or upstarts. Those who had no images of them- 
selves, or of their ancestors, were called ignobiles. 

Those who favored the interests of the Senate were called 
optimates, and sometimes proceres or principes. Those 
who studied to gain the favor of the multitude, were called 
populares, of whatever order they were. This was a di- 
vision of factions, and not of rank or dignity. The con- 
tests between these two parties, excited the greatest com- 
motions in the state, which finally terminated in the ex- 
tinction of liberty. 



CHAPTER IV. 

Gentes and Familial ; Names of the Ro?na?is, fyc. 

The Romans were divided into various clans, (gentes,) 
and each clan into several families. Those of the same 
^ens were called gentiles, and those of the same family, 



20 ROMAN ANTIQUITIES. 

agnati. But relations by the father's side were also called 
agnati, to distinguish them from cognati, relations only by 
the mother's side. 

The Romans had three names, to mark the different 
clans and families, and distinguish the individuals of the 
same family — the praenomen, nomen and cognomen. 

The praenomen was put first, and marked the individual. 
It was commonly written with one letter; as A. for Aulus : 
C. for Caius — sometimes with two ; as Ap. for Appius. 

The nomen was put after the praenomen, to mark the 
gens, and commonly ended in ius; as Cornelius, Fabius. 
The cognomen was put last, and marked the family; as 
Cicero, Caesar. 

Sometimes there was also a fourth name, called the ag- 
nomen, added from some illustrious action, or remarkable 
event. Thus, Scipio was called Africanus, from the con- 
quest of Carthage and Africa: for a similar reason, his 
brother was called Asiaticus. 

These names were not always used ; commonly two, 
and sometimes only the sirname. But in speaking to any 
one, the praenomen was generally used as being peculiar to 
citizens, for slaves had no praenomen. 

The sirnames were derived from various circumstances, 
either from some quality of the mind ; as Cato, from catus, 
wise : or from the habit of the body ; as Calvus, Crassus, 
&c. : or from cultivating particular fruits; as Lentulus, 
Piso, &,c. Q.uintus Cincinnatus was called Serranus, be- 
cause the ambassadors from the senate found him sowing, 
when they brought him word that he was made dictator. 

The praenomen was given to boys on the ninth day, 
which was called dies luslricus, or the day of purification, 
when certain religious ceremonies were performed. The 
eldest son of the family usually received the praenomen of 
his father. The rest were named from their uncles or oth- 
er relations. 

When there was only one daughter in the family, she 
was called by the name of the gens: thus, Tullia, the 
daughter of Cicero ; and retained the same after marriage. 
When there were two daughters, one was called major, 
and the other minor. If there were more than two, they 
were distinguished by their number ; thus — prima, secun- 
da, tertia, &c 

Those were called liberi, free, who had the power of 
doing what they pleased. Those who were born of pa- 



ROMAN ANTIQUITIES. 21 

rents who had been always free, were called ingenui. 
Slaves made free were called liberti, in relation to their 
masters ; and libertini, in relation to free born citizens. 



CHAPTER V. 

Private Rights of Roman Citizens. 

The right of liberty comprehended not only liberty from 
the power of masters, but also from the dominion of ty- 
rants, the severity of magistrates, the cruelty of creditors, 
and the insolence of more powerful citizens. After the ex- 
pulsion of Tarquin, a law was made by Brutus, that no one 
should be king at Rome, and that whoever should form a 
design of making himself a king, might be slain with impu- 
nity. At the same time the people were bound by an oath 
that they would never suffer a king to be created. 

Citizens could appeal from the magistrates to the peo- 
ple, and the persons who appealed could in noway be pun- 
ished, until the people determined the matter ; but they 
were chiefly secured by the assistance of the tribunes. 

None but the whole Roman people in the comitia centu- 
riata could pass sentence on the life of a Roman citizen. 
No magistrate could punish him by stripes or capitally. 
The single expression, "I am a Roman citizen," checked 
their severest decrees. 

By the laws of the twelve tables, it was ordained, that 
insolvent debtors should be given up to their creditors, to 
be bound in fetters and cords, and although they did not 
entirely lose the rights of freemen, yet they were in actual 
slavery, and often more harshly treated than even slaves 
themselves. 

To check the cruelty of usurers, a law was afterwards 
made that no debtors should be kept in irons, or in bonds : 
that the goods of the debtor, not his person, should be 
given up to his creditors. 

The people, not satisfied with this, as it did not free 
them from prison, demanded an entire abolition of debt, 
which they used to call new tables ; but this was never 
granted. 

Each clan and family had certain sacred rights, peculiar 
to itself, which were inherited in the same manner as ef- 
3 



*22 ROMAN ANTIQUITIES. 

fects. When heirs by the father's side of the same family 
failed, those of the same gens succeeded in preference to 
relations by the mother's side of the same family. No one 
could pass from a Patrician family to a Plebeian, or from 
a Plebeian to a Patrician, unless by that form of adoption 
which could only be made at the comiiia curiata. 

No Roman citizen could marry a slave, barbarian or for- 
eigner, unless by the permission of the people. 

A father among the Romans had the power of life and 
death over his children. He could not only expose thern 
when infants, but when grown up he might imprison, 
scourge, send them bound to work in the country, and also 
put them to death by any punishment he pleased. 

A son could acquire no property but with his father's 
consent, and what he thus acquired was called his peculium 
as of a slave. 

Things with respect to property among the Romans 
were variously divided. Some were said to be of divine 
right, and were held sacred, as altars, temples, or any thing 
publicly consecrated to the gods, by the authority of the 
Pontiffs ; or religious, as sepulchres — or inviolable, as the 
walls and gates of a city. 

Others were said to be of human right, and called pro- 
fane. These were either public and common, as the air, 
running water, the sea and its shores ; or private, which 
might be the property of individuals. 

None but a Roman citizen could make a will, or be wit- 
nesses to a testament, or inherit any thing by it. 

The usual method of making a will after the laws of the 
twelve tables were enacted, was by brass and balance, as it 
was called. In the presence of five witnesses, a weigher 
and witness, the testator by an imaginary sale disposed of 
his family and property to one who was called families emp- 
tor, who was not the heir as some have thought, but only 
admitted for the sake of form, that the testator might seem 
to have alienated his effects in his life time. This act was 
CdiUedfamilice mancipatio. 

Sometimes the testator wrote his will wholly with his 
own hand, in which case it was called holographum — some- 
times it was written by a friend, or by others. Thus the 
testament of Augustus was written partly by himself, and 
partly by two of his freedmen, 

Testaments were always subscribed by the testator, and 
usually by the witnesses, and sealed with their seals or 



ROMAN ANTIQUITIES. 23 

rings. They were likewise tied with a thread drawn thrice 
through holes and sealed ; like all other civil deeds, they 
were always written in Latin. A legacy expressed in Greek 
was not valid. 

They were deposited either privately in the hands of a 
friend, or in a temple with the keeper of it. Thus Julius 
Caesar is said to have intrusted his testament to the oldest 
of the vestal virgins. 

A father might leave whom he pleased as guardian to his 
children ; — but if he died, this charge devolved by law on 
the nearest relation by the father's side. When there was 
no guardian by testament, nor a legal one, the praetor and 
the majority of the tribunes of the people appointed a guar- 
dian. If any one died without making a will, his goods de- 
volved on his nearest relations. 

Women could not transact any business of importance 
without the concurrence of their parents, husbands, or 
guardians. 



CHAPTER VI. 

Public Rights of Roman Citizens. 

The jus militice, was the right of serving in the army, 
which was at first peculiar to the higher order of citizens 
only, but afterwards the emperor took soldiers not only 
from Italy and the provinces, but also from barbarous na- 
tions. 

'The jus tributorum was the payment of a tax by each 
individual through the tribes, in proportion to the valua- 
tion of his estates. 

There were three kinds of tribute, one imposed equally 
on each person ; another according to his property ; and a 
third exacted in cases of emergency. There were three 
other kinds of taxes, called portoriwn, decumce and scrip- 
tura. 

The portorium was paid for goods exported and import- 
ed, the collectors of which were called portitores, or for 
carrying goods over a bridge. 

The decumce were the tenth part of corn and the fifth 
part of other fruit, exacted from the cultivators of the pub«? 
lie lands, either in Italy or without it. 



24 ROMAN ANTIQUITIES. 

The scriptura was paid by those who pastured their cat- 
tle upon the public lands. The jus suffragii was the 
right of voting in the different assemblies of the people. 

The jus honorum was the right of being priests or mag- 
istrates, at first enjoyed only by the Patricians. Foreign- 
ers might live in the city of Rome, but they enjoyed none 
of the rights of citizens; they were subject to a peculiar 
jurisdiction, and might be expelled from the city by a 
magistrate. They were not permitted to wear the Roman 
dress. 



CHAPTER VII. 

Places of Worship. 

Templum was a place which had been dedicated to the 
worship of some deity, and consecrated by the augurs. 

JEdes sacra were such as wanted that consecration, 
which, if they afterwards received, they changed their 
names to temples. 

Pelubrum comprehended several deities under one roof. 
The most celebrated temples were the capitol and pan- 
theon. 

The capitol or temple of Jupiter Capitolinus, was the 
effect of a vow made by Tarquinius Priscus, in the Sabine 
war. But he had scarcely laid the foundation before his 
death. His nephew Tarquin the proud, finished it with 
the spoils taken from the neighboring nations. 

The structure stood on a high ridge, taking in four acres 
of ground. The front was adorned with three rows of pil- 
lars, the other sides with two. The ascent from the ground 
was by a hundred steps. The prodigious gifts and orna- 
ments with which it was at several times endowed, almost 
exceed belief. Augustus gave at one time two thousand 
pounds weight of gold, and in jewels and precious stones 
to the value of five hundred sestertia. 

Livy and Pliny surprise us with accounts of the brazen 
thresholds, the noble pillars that Sylla removed thither 
from Athens, out of the temple of Jupiter Olympius ; the 
gilded roof, the gilded shields, and those of solid silver; 
the huge vessels of silver, holding three measures— the 
golden chariot, &c. 



ROMAN ANTIQUITIES. 25 

This temple was first consumed by fire in the Marian 
war, and then rebuilt by Sylla. This too was demolish- 
ed in the Vitellian sedition. Vespasian undertook a third, 
which was burnt about the time of his death. Domitian 
raised the last and most glorious of all, in which the very 
gilding amounted to twelve thousand talents — on which 
Plutarch has observed of that emperor, that he was, like 
Midas, desirous of turning every thing into gold. There 
are very little remains of it at present, yet enough to make 
a christian church. 

The capitol contained in it three temples : one to Ju- 
piter, one to Juno, and one to Minerva. Jupiter's was in 
the centre, whence he was poetically called " Media qui 
sedet cede Deus" — the god who sits in the middle temple. 

The pantheon was built by Marcus Agrippa, son-in-law 
to Augustus Caesar, and dedicated most probably to all the 
gods in general, as the name implies. The structure is a 
hundred and fifty-eight feet high, and about the same 
breadth. The roof-is curiously vaulted, void places being 
here and there for the greater strength. The rafters were 
pieces of brass of forty feet in length. There are no win- 
dows in the whole edifice, only a round hole at the top of 
the roof, which serves very well for the admission of light. 
The walls on the inside are either solid marble or incrust- 
ed. The front, on the outside, was covered with brazen 
plates, gilt, the top with silver plates, which are now 
changed to lead. The gates were brass, of extraordinary 
work and magnitude. 

This temple is still standing, with little alteration, be- 
sides the loss of the old ornaments, being converted into 
a christian church by Pope Boniface III. The most re- 
markable difference is that where they before ascended by 
twelve sleps, they now go down as many to the entrance. 

There are two other temples, particularly worth notice, 
not so much for the magnificence of the structure, as for 
the customs that depend upon them, and the remarkable 
use to which they were put. These are the temples of Sa- 
urn and Janus. 

The first was famous on account of serving for the public 
treasury — the reason of which some fancy to have been 
because Saturn first taught the Italians to coin money ; 
but most probably it was because this was the strongest 
place in the city. Here were preserved all the public reg- 
3* 



S6 ROMAN ANTIQUITIES 

isters and records, among which were the Hbri elephant ini, 
or great ivory tables, containing a list of all the tribes and 
the schemes of the public accounts. 

The other was a square building, some say of entire 
brass, so large as to contain a statue of Janus, five feet 
high, with brazen gates on each side, which were kept 
open in war, and shut in time of peace. 



CHAPTER VIII. 
Of other public Buildings. 

Theatres, so called from the Greek Sixopo-J, to see, owe 
their origin to Bacchus. 

That the theatres and amphitheatres were two different 
sorts of edifices, was never questioned, the former being 
built in the shape of a semicircle; the other generally oval, 
so as to make the same figure as if two theatres should be 
joined together. Yet the same place is often called by 
these names in several authors. They seem, too, to have 
been designed for quite different ends : the theatres for 
stage plays, the amphitheatres for the greater shows of 
gladiators, wild beasts, &,c. The following are the most 
important parts of both. 

Scena was a partition reaching quite across the theatre, 
being made either to turn round or draw up, to present a 
new prospect to the spectators. 

Proscenium was the space of ground just before the 
scene, where the pulpitum stood, into which the actors 
came from behind the scenes to perform. 

The middle part, or area of the amphitheatre, was called 
cavea, because it was considerably lower than the other 
parts, whence perhaps, the name of pit in our play houses 
was borrowed ; and arena, because it used to be strown 
with sand, to hinder the performers from slipping. 

There was a threefold distinction of the seats, according 
to the ordinary division of the people into senators, knights, 
and commons. The first range was called orchestra, from 
*%%fi&* l 't because in that part of the Grecian theatres, the 



ROMAN ANTIQUITIES. C £t 

dances were performed ; the second equestria ; and the 
other popularia. 

The Flavian amphitheatre, now better known by the 
name of the Colisceum, from its stupendous magnitude, 
excites the astonishment of the world. It was five hun- 
dred fifty feet in length, and four hundred seventy in 
breadth, and one hundred sixty in height. It was sur= 
rounded to the top by a portico resting on eighty arches, 
and divided into four stories. The arrangement of the 
seats was similar to that in the theatres; but there was a 
large box projecting from one side, and covered with a 
canopy of state for the accommodation of the emperor and 
the magistrates, who were surrounded with all the insignia 
of office. 

As combats of wild beasts formed a chief part of the 
amusements, they were secured in dens around the arena 
or stage, which was strongly encircled by a canal, to guard 
the spectators against their attacks. These precautions, 
however, were not always sufficient, and instances occurred 
in which the animals sprung across the barrier. 

This huge pile was commenced by Vespasian, and was 
reared with a portion of the materials of Nero's golden 
palace : its form was oval, and it is supposed to have con- 
tained upwards of eighty thousand persons. A large part 
of this vast edifice still remains. 

Theatres, in the first ages of the commonwealth, were 
only temporary, and composed of wood. Of these, the 
most celebrated was that of Marcus Scaurus — the 
scenes of which were divided into three partitions, one 
above another, the first consisting of one hundred and 
twenty pillars of marble; the next, of the like number of 
pillars, curiously wrought in glass. The top of all had the 
same number of pillars adorned with gilded tablets. Be- 
tween the pillars were set three thousand statues and im- 
ages of brass. The cavea would hold eighty thousand 
men. 

Pompey the great was the first who undertook the rais- 
ing of a fixed theatre, which he built nobly of square stone. 
Some of the remains of this theatre are still to be seen 
at Rome. 

The circi were places set apart for the celebration of 
several sorts of games : — they were generally oblong or al- 
most in the shape of a bow, having a wall quite round, 
with ranges of seats for the convenience of spectators. At 



28 ROMAN ANTIQUITIES. 

the entrance of the circus stood the carceres or lists, whence 
they started, and just by them, one ot the metes or marks — 
the other standing at the farther end to conclude the 
race. 

The most remarkable, was the circus maximus, built by 
Tarquinius Priscus: — the length of it was four stadia, or 
furlongs, the breadth the same number of acres, with a 
trench often feet deep, and as many broad, to receive the 
water, and seats enough for one hundred fifty thousand 
men. It was extremely beautiful and adorned by succeed- 
ing princes, and enlarged to such a prodigious extent as to 
be able to contain in their proper seats two hundred and 
sixty thousand spectators. 

The naumachice or places for the shows of sea-engage- 
ments are no where particularly described ; but we may 
suppose them similar to the circi and amphitheatres. 

The stadia were places in the foim of circi, for the run- 
ning of men and horses. A beautiful one was built by 
Domitian. The xysti were places constructed like porticos, 
in which the wrestlers exercised. 

The Campus Martius, famous on so many accounts, was 
a large plain field, lying near the Tiber, whence we find it 
sometimes under the name of Tiberinus : — it was called 
Martius, because it had been consecrated by the old 
Romans to the god Mars. Besides the pleasant situa- 
tion and other natural ornaments, the continual sports and 
exercises performed there, made it one of the most inter- 
esting sights near the city. Here the young noblemen 
practised all kinds of feats of activity, and learned the use 
of arms. Here were the races either with chariots or sin- 
gle horses. Besides this, it was nobly adorned with the 
statues of famous men, with arches, columns and porticos, 
and other magnificent structures. Here stood the villa 
publica or palace, for the reception and entertainment of 
ambassadors from foreign states, who were not allowed to 
enter the city. 

The Roman curia were,of two sorts, divine and civil. 
In the former, the priests and religious orders met for the 
regulation of the rites and ceremonies belonging to the 
worship of the gods. In the other, the senate used to as- 
semble, to consult about the public concerns of the com- 
monwealth. The senate could not meet in such a place, 
unless it had been solemnly consecrated by the augurs, and 
made of the same nature as a temple. 



ROMAN ANTIQUITIES. 29 

The Roman forums were public buildings about three 
times as long as they were broad. All the compass of the 
forum was surrounded by arched porticos, some passages 
being left as places of entrance. 

There were two kinds, fora civilia and fora venalia* 
The first were designed for the ornaments of the city, 
and for the use of public courts of justice. The others 
were erected for the necessities and conveniences of the 
inhabitants, and were no doubt equivalent to our markets. 
The most remarkable were the Roman forum, built by 
Romulus, and adorned with porticos on all sides, by Tar- 
quinius Priscus : This was the most ancient and most fre- 
quently used in public affairs. 

The Julian forum, built by Julius Caesar, with the spoils 
taken in the Gallic war ; the area alone, cost one hundred 
thousand sesterces, equal to 3570 dollars. 

The Augustan forum, built by Augustus Caesar, contain- 
ing statues in the two porticos, on each side of the main 
building. In one were all the Latin kings, beginning with 
iEneas: in the other, all the Roman kings, beginning with 
Romulus, and most of the eminent persons in the common- 
wealth, and Augustus himself among the rest, with an in- 
scription upon the pedestal of every statue, expressing 
the chief actions and exploits of the person it repre- 
sented. 

The forum of Trajan, erected by the emperor Trajan, 
with the foreign spoils he had taken in the wars; the cov- 
ering was all brass, and the porticos exceedingly beautiful. 

The chief fora venalia or markets, were boarium, for 
oxen and beef, suarium, for swine, pistorium, for bread, 
cupedinarium, for dainties, and holitorium, for roots, sal- 
lads and similar things. 

The comitium was only a part of the RomanTorum, which 
served sometimes for the celebration of the comitia ; here 
stood the rostra, a kind of pulpit, adorned with the beaks 
of ships taken in a sea fight, from the inhabitants of An- 
tium in Italy ; here causes were pleaded, orations made, 
and funeral panegyrics delivered. 



30 ROMAN ANTIQUITIES. 

CHAPTER IX. 

Porticos, Arches, Columns and Trophies. 

The porticos are worthy of observation : they were 
structures of curious work and extraordinary beauty an- 
nexed to public edifices, sacred and civil, as well for orna- 
ment as use. 

They generally took their names either from the temples 
which they stood near, from the builders, from the nature 
and form of the building, or from the remarkable paintings 
in them. 

They were sometimes used for the assemblies of the sen- 
ate; sometimes the jewellers and such as dealt in the most 
precious wares took their stand here to expose their goods 
tor sale ; but the general use they were put to, was the 
pleasure of walking or riding in them, like the present pi- 
azzas in Italy. 

Arches were public buildings designed for the encour- 
agement and reward of noble enterprises, erected generally 
to the honor of such eminent persons as had either won a 
victory of extraordinary consequence abroad, or had res- 
cued the commonwealth, at home, from any considerable 
danger. 

At first they were plain and rude structures, by no means 
remarkable for beauty or taste : but in latter times no ex- 
pense was thought too great to render them in the highest 
manner splendid and magnificent. The arches built by 
Romulus were only of brick, that of Camillus of plain 
square stone, but those of Caesar, Drusus, Titus, &c. were 
all of marble. 

Their figure was at first semicircular, whence probably 
they took their names ; afterwards they were built four 
square, with a spacious arched gate in the middle, and 
small ones on each side. Upon the vaulted part of the mid- 
dle gate, hung little winged images representing victory, 
with crowns in their hands, which, when they were let down, 
they put upon the conqueror's head, as he passed under 
the triumphal arch. 

The columns or pillars, over the sepulchres of distinguish- 
ed men, were great ornaments to the city : they were at 
last converted to the same design as the arches, for the 
honorable memorial of some noble victory or exploit. The 



ROMAN ANTIQUITIES. 31 

pillars of the emperors Trajan and Antoninus deserve par- 
ticular attention for their beauty and curious workmanship. 

The former was set up in the middle of Trajan's forum, 
being composed of twenty-four great stones of marble, but 
so skilfully cemented as to appear one entire stone. The 
height was one hundred forty- four feet ; it is ascended on 
the inside by one hundred eighty-five winding stairs, and 
has forty little windows for the admission of light. The 
whole pillar is incrusted with marble, in which are express- 
ed all the noble actions of the emperor, and particularly the 
Decian war. 

But its noblest ornament was the gigantic statue of Tra- 
jan on the top, being no less than twenty feet high ; he 
was represented in a coat of armour proper to the general, 
holding in his left hand a sceptre, in his right a hollow 
globe of fire, in which his own ashes were deposited after 
his death. 

The column of Antoninus was raised in imitation of this, 
which it exceeded only in one respect, that it was one hun- 
dred seventy six feet high — for the work was much inferi- 
or to the former, being undertaken in the declining age of 
the empire. The ascent on the inside was by one hundred 
six steps, and the windows, in the sides, fifty-six ; the 
sculpture and the other ornaments were of the same nature 
as those of the first, and on the top stood a colossal statue 
of the emperor, naked, as appears from his coins. 

Both of these columns are still standing at Rome ; the 
former almost entire : but Pope Sixtus the first, instead of 
the two statues of the emperors, set up St. Peter's on the 
column of Trajan, and St. Paul's on that of Antoninus. 

There was likewise a gilded pillar in the forum, called 
the milliarium aureum, erected by Augustus Cassar, at 
which all the highways of Italy met and were concluded ; 
from this they counted their miles, at the end of every mile 
setting up a stone, whence came the phrase primus ab urbe 
pisla. 

But the most remarkable was the columna rostrata, set 
up to the honor of Caius Duilius, when he had gained a 
victory over the Carthaginian and Sicilian fleets, four hun- 
dred ninety-three years from the foundation of the city, 
and adorned with the beaks of the vessels taken in the en- 
gagement. This is still to be seen at Rome ; the inscrip- 
tion on the basis is a noble example of the old way of wri- 
ting, in the early times of the commonwealth. 



32 ROMAN ANTIQUITIES. 

Trophies were spoils taken from the enemy, and fixed 
upon any thing as signs or monuments of victory : they 
were erected usually in the place where it was gained and 
consecrated to some divinity, with an inscription. 



CHAPTER X. 

Bagnios, Aqueducts, Sewers and public Ways. 

The Romans expended immense sums of money on their 
bagnios. The most remarkable were those of the empe- 
rors Dioclesian and Antonius Caracalla — great part of 
which are standing at this time, and with the high arches, 
the beautiful and stately pillars, the abundance of foreign 
marble, the curious vaulting of the roofs, and the prodig- 
ious number of spacious apartments, may be considered 
among the greatest curiosities of Rome. 

The first invention of aqueducts, is attributed to Appius 
Claudius, four hundred forty-one years from the founda- 
tion of the city, who brought water into the city, by a chan- 
nel of eleven miles in length— but afterwards several others 
of greater magnitude were built : several of them were cut 
through the mountains and all other impediments for 
about forty miles together, and of such a height that a man 
on horseback might ride through them without the least 
difficulty. But this is meant only of the constant course of 
the channel, for the vaults and arches were in some places 
one hundred and nine feet high. It is said that Rome was 
supplied with five hundred thousand hogsheads every twen- 
ty-four hours by means of these aqueducts. 

The cloaccz or sewers were constructed by undermining 
and cutting through the seven hills upon which Rome stood, 
making the city hang, as it were, between heaven and 
earth, and capable of being sailed under. 

Marcus Agrippa in his edileship, made no less than sev- 
en streams meet together under ground, in one main chan- 
nel, with such a rapid current, as to carry all before them, 
that they met with in their passage. Sometimes in a flood, 
the waters of the Tiber opposed them in their course, and 
the two streams encountered each other with great fury : 
yet the works preserved their old strength, without any sen- 
sible damage: sometimes the ruins of whole buildings, 



ROMAN ANTIQUITIES. 33 

destroyed by fire or other casualties, pressed heavily upon 
the frame : sometimes terrible earthquakes shook the foun- 
dation : yet they still continued impregnable. 

The public ways were built with extraordinary care to a 
great distance from the city on all sides ; they were gener- 
ally paved with flint, though sometimes, and especially 
without the city, with pebbles and gravel. 

The most noble was the Appian way, the length of 
which was generally computed at three hundred and fifty 
miles : it was twelve feet broad, made of huge stones, most 
of them blue. Its strength was so great, that after it had 
been built two thousand years, it was, in most places, for 
several miles together, perfectly sound. 



CHAPTER XT. 

Of Augurs and Auguries. 

The business of the augurs or soothsayers was to inter- 
pret dreams, oracles, prodigies, &c. and to tell whether any 
action should be fortunate or prejudicial to any particular 
persons, or to the whole commonwealth. 

There are five kinds of auguries mentioned in authors — 
1st. From the appearances in heaven, — as thunder, light- 
ning, comets and other meteors; as, for instance, whether 
the thunder came from the right or left, whether the num- 
ber of strokes was even or odd, &,c. 

2d. From birds, whence they had the name of auspices, 
from avis and specio ; some birds furnished them with ob- 
servations from their chattering and singing, — such as 
crows, owls, &,c. — others from their flying, as eagles, vul- 
tures, &-C. 

To take both these kind of auguries, the observer stood 
upon a tower with his head covered in a gown, peculiar to 
his office, and turning his face towards the east, marked 
out the heavens into four quarters, with a short, straight 
rod, with a little turning at one end : this done, he staid 
waiting for the omen, which never signified anything, un- 
less confirmed by another of the same sort. 

3d. From chickens kept in a coop for this purpose. 
The manner of divining from them was as follows : — early 
4 



34 ROMAN ANTIQUITIES. 

in the morning, the augur, commanding a general silence, 
ordered the coop to be opened, and threw down a handful 
of crumbs or corn : if the chickens did not immediately run 
to the food, if they scattered it with their wings, if they 
went by without taking notice of it, or if they -flew away, 
the omen was reckoned unfortunate, and to portend noth- 
ing but danger or mischance; but if they leaped directly 
from the pen, and eat voraciously, there was great assur- 
ance of happiness and success. 

4th. From beasts, such as foxes, wolves, goats, heifers, 
&c. ; the general observations about these, were, whether 
they appeared in a strange place, or crossed the way, or 
whether they ran to the right or the left, &c. 

The last kind of divination was from unusual accidents, 
such as sneezing, stumbling, seeing apparations, hearing 
strange voices, the falling of salt upon the table, &c. 



CHAPTER XII. 

Of the Aruspices, Pontifices, Quindecemviri, Vestals, $pc. 

The business of aruspices was to look upon the beasts 
offered in sacrifices, and by them to divine the success of 
any enterprise. 

They took their observations, 1st. From the beasts be- 
fore they were cut up. 2d. From the entrails of those 
beasts after they were cut up. 3d. From the flame that 
used to rise when they were burning. 4th. From the 
flour of bran, from the frankincense, wine and water, which 
they used in the sacrifice. 

The offices of the pontifices were to give judgment in all 
cases relating to religion, to inquire into the lives of the 
inferior priests, and to punish them if they saw occasion ; 
to prescribe rules for public worship ; to regulate the feasts, 
sacrifices, and all other sacred institutions. The master or 
superintendent of the pontifices was one of the most hon- 
orable offices in the commonwealth. 

The quindecemviri had the charge of the sibylline books ; 
inspected them by the appointment of the senate in danger- 
ous junctures, and performed the sacrifices which they en- 
joined. 



ROMAN ANTIQUITIES. 35 

They are said to have been instituted on the following 
occasion : A certain woman called Amalthea is said to 
have come to Tarquin the proud, wishing to sell nine books 
of sibylline or prophetic oracles : but upon Tarquin's 
refusal to give her the price she asked, she went away and 
burnt three of them. Returning soon after, she asked the 
same price for the remaining six : whereupon, being ridi- 
culed by the king, she went and burnt three more ; and 
coming back, still demanded the same price for those 
which remained. Tarquin, surprised at this strange con- 
duct of the woman, consulted the augurs what to do; they, 
regretting the loss of the books which had been destroyed, 
advised the king to give the price required. The woman 
therefore, having delivered the books and directed them to 
be carefully kept, disappeared, and was never afterwards 
seen. 

These books were supposed to contain the fate of the 
Roman empire, and therefore, in public danger or calamity, 
they were frequently inspected ; they were kept with great 
care in a chest under ground, in the capitol. 

The institution of the vestal virgins is generally attrib- 
uted to Numa; their office was to attend upon the rites of 
Vesta, the chief part of it being the preservation of the holy 
fire : they were obliged to keep this with the greatest care, 
and if it happened to go out, it was thought impiety to light 
it by any common flame, but they made use of the pure rays 
of the sun. 

The famous palladium brought from Troy by iEneas, 
was likewise guarded by them, for Ulysses and Diomedes 
stole only a counterfeit one, a copy of the other, which was 
kept with less care. 

The number of the vestals was six, and they were ad- 
mitted between the years of six and ten. The chief rules 
prescribed by their founder, were to vow the strictest chas- 
tity for the space of thirty years ; — the first ten they were 
only novices, being obliged to learn the ceremonies and 
perfect themselves in the duties of their religion ; the next 
ten years they discharged the duties of priestesses, and 
spent the remaining ten in instructing others. 

If they broke their vow of virginity, they were buried 
alive in a place without the city wall, allotted for that pur^» 
pose, 



36 ROMAN ANTIQUITIES. 

This severe condition was recompensed with several 
privileges and prerogatives : their persons were sacred : in 
public they usually appeared on a magnificent car, drawn 
by white horses, followed by a numerous retinue of female 
slaves, and preceded by lictors ; and if they met a male- 
factor going to punishment, they had the power to remit 
his sentence. 

The scptemviri were priests among the Romans, who 
prepared the sacred feasts at games, processions, and other 
solemn occasions : they were likewise assistants to the 
pontifices. 

The fratres ambarvales, twelve in number, were those 
priests who offered up sacrifices for the fertility of the 
ground. The curiones performed the rites in each curia. 

Feciales (Heralds) were a college of sacred persons, 
into whose charge all concerns relating to the declaration 
of war or conclusion of peace, were committed. 

Their first institution was in so high a degree laudable 
and beneficial, as to reflect great honour on Roman justice 
and moderation. It was the primary and especial duty of 
the heralds, to inquire into the equity of a proposed war : 
and if the grounds of it seemed to them trivial or unjust, the 
war was declined — if otherwise, the senate concerted the 
best measures to carry it on with spirit. 

Feciales were supreme judges in every thing relating to 
treaties. The head of their college was called Pater Pa 
tratus. 

All the members of this college, while in the discharge 
of their duty, wore a wreath of vervain around their heads; 
and bore a branch of it in their hands, when they made 
peace, of which it was an emblem. 

Their authority and respectability continued until the 
lust of dominion had corrupted the policy of the Romans; 
after which their situations were comparative sinecures, 
and their solemn deliberations dwindled into useless or con- 
temptible formalities. 

Among the flamines or priests of particular gods, were, 
1st. jlamen dialis the priest of Jupiter. This was an office 
of great dignity, but subjected to many restrictions ; as that 
he should not ride on horseback, nor stay one night with- 
out the city, nor take an oath, and several others. 

2d. The salii, priests of Mars, so called, because on sol- 
emn occasions they used to go through the city dancing. 



ROMAN ANTIQUITIES 37 

dressed in an embroidered tunic, bound with a brazen belt, 
and a toga pretexla or trabea ; having on their head a cap 
rising to a considerable height in the form of a cone, with 
a sword by their side, in their right hand a spear or lod, 
and in their left, one of the ancilia or shields of Mars. — 
The most solemn procession of the salii was on the first of 
March, in commemoration of the time when the sacred 
shield was believed to have fallen from heaven in the reign 
of Numa. 

3d. The luperci, priests of Pan, were so called, from a 
wolf, because that god was supposed to keep the wolves 
from the sheep. Hence the place where he was worship- 
ped was called lupercal, and his festival lupercalia, which 
was celebrated in February, at which the luperci ran up and 
down the city naked, having only a girdle of goat skin 
round their waists, and thongs of the same in their hands, 
with which they struck those they met. 

It is said that Antony, while chief of the luperci, went 
according to concert, it is believed, almost naked into the 
forum, attended by his lictors, and having made an har- 
angue to the people from the rostra, presented a crown to 
Caesar, who was sitting there, surrounded by the whole 
senate and people. He attempted frequently to put the 
crown upon his head, addressing him by the title of king, 
and declaring that what he said and did was at the desire 
of his fellow citizens ; but Caesar perceiving the strongest 
marks of aversion in the people, rejected it, saying, that 
Jupiter alone was king of Rome, and therefore sent the 
crown to the capitol to be presented to that God. 



CHAPTER XIII. 

Religious Ceremonies of the Romans. 

The Romans were, as a people, remarkably attached to 
the religion they professed; and scrupulously attentive in 
discharging the rites and ceremonies which it enjoined. 

Their religion was Idolatry, in its grossest and widest 
acceptation. It acknowledged a few general truths, but 
greatly darkened these by fables and poetical fiction. 

All the inhabitants of the invisible world, to which the 

souls of people departed after death, were indiscriminately 

4 # 



35 ROMAN ANTIQUITIES* 

called Inferi. Elysium was that part of hell (apud Infe* 
ros,) in which the good spent a spiritual existence of un- 
miugled enjoyment, and Tartarus (pi. -ra) was the terrible 
prison-house of the damned. 

The worship of the gods consisted chiefly in prayers, 
vows, and sacrifices. No act of religious worship was per- 
formed without prayer ; while praying, they stood usually 
with their heads covered, looking towards the east ; a 
priest pronounced the words before them ; — they frequent- 
ly touched the altars or knees of the images of the gods; 
turning themselves round in a circle towards the right, 
sometimes putting their right hand to their mouth, and also 
prostrating themselves on the ground. 

They vowed temples, games, sacrifices, gifts, &,c. Some- 
limes they used to write their vows on paper or waxen tab- 
lets, to seal them up, and fasten them with wax to the 
knees of the images of the gods, that being supposed to be 
the seat of mercy. 

Lustrations were necessary to be made before entrance 
on any important religious duty, viz. before setting out to 
the temples, before the sacrifice, before initiation into the 
mysteries, and before solemn vows and prayers. 

Lustrations were also made after acts by which one 
might be polluted ; as after murder, or after having assisted 
at a funeral. 

In sacrifices it was requisite that those who offered them, 
should come chaste and pure ; that they should bathe them- 
selves, be dressed in white robes, and crowned with the 
leaves of the tree which was thought most acceptable to 
the god whom they worshipped. 

Sacrifices were made of victims whole and sound (In- 
tegrcc et sana.) But all victims were not indifferently of- 
feied to all gods. 

A white bull was an acceptable sacrifice to Jupiter ; an 
ewe to Juno; black victims, bulls especially, to Pluto; a 
bull and a horse to Neptune ; the horse to Mars ; bullocks 
and lambs to Apollo, &c. Sheep and goats were offered 
to various deities. 

The victim was led to the altar with a loose rope, that 
it might not seem to be brought by force, which was reck- 
oned a bad omen. After silence was proclaimed, a salted 
cake was sprinkled on the head of the beast, and frankin- 
cense and wine poured between his horns, the priest hav- 
ing first tasted the wine himself, and given it to be tasted 



fcOMAN ANTIQUITIES. 39 

by those that stood next him, which was called libatio — the 
priest then plucked the highest hairs between the horns, 
and threw them into the fire — the victim was struck with an 
axe or mall, then stabbed with knives, and the blood being 
caught in goblets, was poured on the altar — it was then 
flayed and dissected ; then the entrails were inspected by 
the aruspices, and if the signs were favorable, they were 
said to have offered up an acceptable sacrifice, or to have 
pacified the gods; if not, another victim was offered up, 
and sometimes several. The parts which fell to the gods 
were sprinkled with meal, wine, and frankincense, and 
burnt on the altar. When the sacrifice was finished, the 
priest, having washed his hands, and uttered certain 
prayers, again made a libation, and the people were dis- 
missed. 

Human sacrifices were also offered among the Romans : 
persons guilty of certain crimes, as treachery or sedition, 
were devoted to Pluto and the infernal gods, and therefore 
any one might slay them with impunity. 

Altars and temples afforded an asylum or place of refuge 
among the Greeks and Romans, as well as among the Jews, 
chiefly to slaves from the cruelty of their masters, and to 
insolvent debtors and criminals, where it was considered 
impious to touch them ; but sometimes they put fire and 
combustible materials around the place, that the person 
might appear to be forced away, not by men, but by a god : 
or shut up the temple and unroofed it, that he might perish 
in the open air. 



CHAPTER XIV. 

The Roman Year. 

Romulus divided the year into ten months; the first of 
which was called March from Mars, his supposed father ; 
the 2d April, either from the Greek name of Venus, 
('A^o^V/j) or because trees and flowers open their buds, 
during that month ; the 3d, May, from Maia, the mother of 
Mercury; the 4th, June, from the goddess Juno ; 5th, July, 
from Julius Caesar ; 6th, August, from Augustus Csesar ; 
the rest were called from their number, September, Octo- 
ber, November, December. 



40 ROMAN ANTIQUITIES, 

Numa added two months — January from Janus, and 
February because the people were then purified, (febrna- 
batur) by an expiatory sacrifice from the sin of the whole 
year : for this anciently was the last month in the year. 

Numa in imitation of the Greeks divided the year into 
twelve lunar months, according to the course of the moon, 
but as this mode of division did not correspond with the 
course of the sun, he ordained that an intercalary month 
should be added every other year. 

Julius Caesar afterwards abolished this month, and with 
the assistance of Sosigenes, a skilful astronomer of Alex- 
andria, in the year of Rome 707, arranged the year accord- 
ing to the course of the sun, commencing with the first of 
January, and assigned to each month the number of days 
which they still retain. This is the celebrated Julian or 
solar year which has been since maintained without any 
other alteration than that of the new style, introduced by 
pope Gregory, A. D. 1582, and adopted in England in 1752, 
when eleven days were dropped between the second and 
fourteenth of September. 

The months were divided into three parts, kalends, 
nones and ides. They commenced with the kalends ; the 
nones occurred on the fifth, and the ides on the thirteenth, 
except in March, May, July, and October, when they fell 
on the seventh and fifteenth. 

In marking the days of the month they went backwards : 
thus, January first was the first of the kalends of January — 
December thirty-first was pridie kalendas, or the day next 
before the kalends of January — the day before that, or the 
thirtieth of December, tertio kalendas Januarii, or the third 
day before the kalends of January, and so on to the thir- 
teenth, when came the ides of December. 

The day was either civil or natural ; the civil day was 
from midnight to midnight; the natural day was from the 
rising to the setting of the sun. 

The use of clocks and watches was unknown to the 
Romans — nor was it till four hundred and forty-seven years 
after the building of the city, that the sun dial was intro- 
duced : about a century later, they first measured time 
by a water machine, which served by night, as well as by 
day. 

Their days were distinguished by the names of festi, 
profesti, and intercisi. The festi were dedicated to reli- 
gious worship, the profesti were allotted to ordinary busi- 



ROMAN ANTIQUITIES- 



41 



cress, and the days which served partly for one and partly 
for the other were called intercisi, or half holy days. 

The manner of reckoning by weeks was not introduced 
until late in the second century of the christian era : it was 
borrowed from the Egyptians, and the days were named 
after the planets : thus, Sunday from the Sun, Monday 
from the Moon, Tuesday from Mars, Wednesday from 
Mercury, Thursday from Jupiter, Friday from Venus, 
Saturday from Saturn. 



A Table of the Kalends, Nones, and Ides. 



^ 

^ 



Apr. June, 
Sept. JYov. 



Jan. August 
December. 



March, May 
July, Oct. 



February. 



Kalendse. 


Kalendse. 


IV. Nonas. 


IV. Nonas. 


III. . . 


III. 


Pridie. . 


Pridie. . . 


Nonae . 


Nonae. . . 


VIII. ldU3 


VIII. Idus. 


VII. . . 


VII. . 


VI. 


VI. 


V. 


V. 


IV. 


IV. 


III. 


III. 


Pridie. . . 


Pridie. . . 


Idus. . . 


Idus. . . 


XVlII.Eai 


XIX. Kal. 


XVII. . . 


XVIII. . . 


XVI. . . 


XVII. . . 


XV. . . 


XVI. . . 


XIV . . . 


XV. . . 


XIII. . . 


XIV. . . 


XII . . 


XIII. . . 


XI- 


XII. . . 


X. 


XI. 


IX. . . 


X. 


VIII. . , 


IX. 


VII. . . 


VIIL . . 


VI. 


VII. . . 


v. 


VI. 


IV. 


V. 


Ill 


IV. 


Prid. Kal. 


III. 


Mens. seq. 


Prid. Kal. 




Mens. seq. ' 



Kal. 



Kalendae. 
VI. 
V. 
IV. 

III. 

Piidie. . . 
Nonae. . . 
VIII. Idus. 

VII. . . 
VI. 

V. 

IV. 

III. 

Pridie. . . 

Idus. 

XVII. 

XVI. . . 

XV. . . 

XIV. . . 

XIII. . . 

XII. . . 

XI. 

X. 

IX. 

VIII. . . 
VII. . . 
VI. 

v. 

IV. 

III. 

Prid. Kal. 
Mens. seq. 



Kalendse. 

IV. Nonas 

III. 

Pridie. 

Nonae. 

VIII. Idus 

VII. 

VI. 

V. 

IV. 

III. 

Pridie. 

Idus. 

XVI. Kal 

XV. 

XIV 

XIII. 

XII. 

XL 

X. 

IX. 

VIII. 

VII. 

VI. 

V. 

IV. 

III. 

Prid. Kal 
Martii. 



42 ROMAN ANTIQUITIES*. 

CHAPTER XV. 
Roman Games. 

The Roman Games formed a part of religious worships 
and were always consecrated to some god : they were 
either stated or vowed by generals in war, or celebrated on 
extraordinary occasions ; the most celebrated were those 
of the circus. 

Among them were first, chariot and horse races, of 
which the Romans were extravagantly fond. The char- 
ioteers were distributed into four parties or factions from 
the different colours of their dresses. The spectators favor- 
ed one or other of the colours, as humor or caprice inclin- 
ed them. It was not the swiftness of their horses, nor the 
art of the men that inclined them, but merely the dress. 
In the times of Justinian, no less than thirty thousand 
men are said to have lost their lives at Constantinople, in a 
tumult raised by contention among the partizans of the sev- 
eral colours. 

The order in which the chariots or horses stood, was 
determined by lot, and the person who presided at the 
games gave the signal for starting, by dropping a cloth ;. 
then the chain of the hermuli being withdrawn, they sprung 
forward, and whoever first ran seven times round the 
course, was declared the victor ; he was then crowned, 
and received a prize in money of considerable value. 

Second ; contests of agility and strength, of which 
there were five kinds ; running, leaping, boxing, wrestling 
and throwing the discus or quoit. Boxers covered their 
hands with a kind of gloves, which had lead or iron sewed 
into them, to make the strokes fall with greater weight ; 
the combatants were previously trained in a place of exer- 
cise, and restricted to a particular diet. 

Third ; what was called venatio > or the fighting of wild 
beasts with one another, or with men, called bestiarii y who 
were either forced to this by way of punishment, as the 
primitive christians often were, or fought voluntarily, either 
from a natural ferocity of disposition, or induced by hire, 
An incredible number of animals of various kinds, were 
brought from all quarters, for the entertainment of the peo- 
ple, at an immense expense ; and were kept in enclosures 
called vivaria* till the day of exhibition. Pompey, in his 



ftOMAN ANTIQUITIES. 43 

second consulship, exhibited at once five hundred lions, 
and eighteen elephants, who were all despatched in five 
days. 

Fourth ; naumackia, or the representation of a sea fight ; 
those who fought, were usually composed of captives or 
condemned malefactors, who fought to death, unless saved 
by the clemency of the emperors. 

In the next class of games were the shows of gladiators ; 
they were first exhibited at Rome by two brothers called 
Bruti, at the funeral of their father, and for sometime they 
were only exhibited on such occasions; but afterwards, 
also by the magistrates, to entertain the people, chiefly at 
the saturnalia and feasts of Minerva. 

Incredible numbers of men were destroyed in this man- 
ner ; after the triumph of Trajan over the Dacians, specta- 
cles were exhibited for one hundred twenty-three days, in 
which eleven thousand animals, of different kinds, were 
killed, and ten thousand gladiators fought, whence we may 
judge of other instances. The emperor Claudius, although 
naturally of a gentle disposition, is said to have been ren- 
dered cruel by often attending these spectacles. 

Gladiators were at first composed of slaves and captives, 
or of condemned malefactors, but afterwards also of free 
born citizens, induced by hire or inclination. 

When any gladiator was wounded, he lowered his arms 
as a sign of his being vanquished, but his fate depended 
on the pleasure of the people, who, if they wished him to 
be saved, pressed down their thumbs ; if to be slain, they 
turned them up, and ordered him to receive the sword, 
which gladiators usually submitted to with amazing fortitude. 

Such was the spirit engendered by these scenes of 
blood, that malefactors and unfortunate christians, during 
the period of the persecution against them, were compelled 
to risk their lives in these unequal contests ; and in the 
time of Nero, christians were dressed in skins, and thus 
distinguished, were hunted by dogs, or forced to contend 
with ferocious animals, by which they were devoured. 

The next in order were the dramatic entertainments, of 
which there were three kinds. First; comedy, which was 
a representation of common life, written in a familiar style, 
and usually with a happy issue : the design of it was, to 
expose vice and folly to ridicule. 

Second ; tragedy, or the representation of some one se- 
rious and important action ; in which illustrious persons 



44 ROMAN ANTIQUITIES. 

are introduced as heroes, kings, &c. written in an elevated 
style, and generally with an unhappy issue. 

The great end of tragedy was to excite the passions^ 
chiefly pity and horror : to inspire a love of virtue, and an 
abhorrence of vice. 

The Roman tragedy and comedy differed from ours only 
in the chorus : this was a company ot actors who usually 
remained on the stage singing and conversing on the sub- 
ject in the intervals of the acts. 

Pantomimes, or representations of dumb show, where 
the actors expressed every thing by their dancing and ges- 
tures, without speaking. 

Those who were most approved, received crowns, &c 
as at other games; at first composed of leaves or flowers,, 
tied round the head with strings, afterwards of thin plates 
of brass gilt. 

The scenery was concealed by a curtain, which, contra- 
ry to the modern custom, was drawn down when the play 
began, and raised when it was over* 



CHAPTER XVL 

Magistrates. 

Rome was at first governed by kings, chosen by the 
people ; their power was not absolute, but limited ; their 
badges were the trabea or white robe adorned with stripes 
of purple, a golden crown and ivory sceptre ; the curule 
chair and twelve lictors with the fasces, that is, carrying 
each a bundle of rods, with an axe in the middle of them. 

The regal government subsisted at Rome for two hun- 
dred and forty-three years, under seven kings — Romuius, 
Numa Pompilius, Tullus Hostilius, Ancus Marcius, Lucius 
Tarquinius Priscus, Servius Tullius, and Lucius Tarqui- 
nius Superbus, all of whom, except the last, may be said 
to have laid the foundation of Roman greatness by their 
good government. 

Tarquin being universally detested for his tyranny and 
cruelty, was expelled the city, with his wife and family, ou 
account of the violence offered by his son Sextus to Lu- 
cretia, a noble lady, the wife of Collatinus. 



ROMAN ANTIQUITIES. 45 

This revolution was brought about chiefly by means of 
Lucius Junius Brutus. The haughtiness and cruelty of 
Tarquin inspired the Romans with the greatest aversion 
to regal government, which they retained ever after. 

In the two hundred and forty -fourth year from the build- 
ing of the city, they elected two magistrates, of equal au- 
thority, and gave them the name of consuls. They 
had the same badges as the kings, except the crown, and 
nearly the same power; in time of war they possessed su- 
preme command, and usually drew lots to determine which 
should remain in Rome — they levied soldiers, nominated 
the greater part of the officers, and provided what was 
necessary for their support. 

In dangerous conjunctures, they were armed by the 
senate with absolute power, by the solemn decree that the 
consuls should take care the Republic receives no harm. 
In any serious tumult or sedition they called the Roman 
citizens to arms in these words, " Let those who wish to 
save the republic follow me" — by which they easily check- 
ed it. 

Although their authority was very much impaired, first 
by the tribunes of the people, and afterwards upon the es- 
tablishment of the empire, yet they were still employed in 
consulting the senate, administering justice, managing 
public games and the like, and had the honor to charac- 
terize the year by their own names. 

To be a candidate for the consulship, it was requisite to 
be forty-three years of age : to have gone through the in- 
ferior offices of quaestor, (zdile, and prcetor — and to be 
present in a private station. 

The office of praetor was instituted partly because the 
consuls being often wholly taken up with foreign wars, 
found the want of some person to administer justice in the 
city ; and partly because the nobility, having lost their ap- 
propriation of the consulship, were ambitious of obtaining 
some new honor in its room. He was attended in the 
city by two lictors, who went before him with the fasces, 
and six lictors without the city ; he wore also, like the 
consuls, the toga pretext a :, or white robe fringed with pur- 
ple. 

The power of the praetor, in the administration of jus- 
tice, was expressed in three words, do, dico, addico. By 
the word do, he expressed his power in giving the form of 



46 ROMAN ANTIQUITIES. 

a writ for trying and redressing a wrong, and in appoint- 
ing judges or jury to decide the cause : by dico, he meant 
that he declared right, or gave judgment ; and by addico, 
that he adjudged the goods of the debtor to the creditor. 
The praetor administered justice only in private or trivial 
cases : but in public and important causes, the people either 
judged themselves, or appointed persons called qu&sitores 
to preside. 

The censors were appointed to take an account of the 
number of the people, and the value of their fortunes, and 
superintend the public morals. They were usually chosen 
from the most respectable persons of consular dignity, at 
first only from among the Patricians, but afterwards like- 
wise from the Plebeians. 

They had the same ensigns as the consuls, except the 
lictors, and were chosen every five years, but continued in 
office only a year and a half. When any of the senators 
or equites committed a dishonorable action, the censors 
could erase the name of the former from the list, and de- 
prive the knight of his horse and ring ; any other citizen, 
they degraded or deprived of all the privileges of a Roman 
citizen, except liberty. 

As the sentence of censors ( Animadversio Censoria,) 
only affected a person's character, it was therefore properly 
called Ignominia. Yet even this was not unchangeable ; 
the people or next censors might reverse it. 

In addition to the revision of morals, censors had the 
charge of paving the streets — making roads, bridges, and 
aqueducts — preventing private persons from occupying pub- 
lic property — and frequently of imposing taxes. 

A census was taken by these officers, every five years, 
of the number of the people, the amount of their fortunes, 
the number of slaves, &c. After this census had been ta- 
ken, a sacrifice was made of a sow, a sheep, and a bull — - 
hence called suove-taurilia. As this took place only every 
five years, that space of time was called a lustrum, because 
the sacrifice was a lustration offered for all the people ; 
and therefore condere lustrum, means to finish the census. 

The title of censor was esteemed more honorable than 
that of consul, although attended by less power: no one 
could be elected a second time, and they who filled it were 
remarkable for leading an irreproachable life; so that it 
was considered the chief ornament of nobility to be sprung 
from a censorian family. 



ROMAN ANTIQUITIES. 47 

The appointment of tribunes of the people, may be at- 
tributed to the following cause ; the Plebeians being op- 
pressed by the Patricians, on account of debt, made a se- 
cession to a mountain afterwards called mons sacer, three 
miles from Rome, nor could they be prevailed on to return, 
till they obtained from the Patricians a remission of debts 
for those who were insolvent, and liberty to such as had 
been given up to serve their creditors : and likewise that 
the Plebeians should have proper magistrates of their own, 
to protect their rights, whose person should be sacred and 
inviolable. 

They were at first five in number, but afterwards in- 
creased to ten ; they had no external mark of dignity, ex- 
cept a kind of beadle, called viator, who went before them. 

The word veto, I forbid it, was at first the extent of their 
power ; but it afterwards increased to such a degree, that 
under pretence of defending the rights of the people, they 
did almost whatever they pleased. If any one hurt a tri- 
bune in word or deed, he was held accursed, and his prop- 
erty confiscated. 

The ediles were so called from their care of the public 
buildings ; they were either Plebeian or curule ; the former, 
two in number, were appointed to be, as it were, the assist- 
ants of the tribunes of the commons, and to determine 
certain lesser causes committed to them ; the latter, also 
two in number, were chosen from the Patricians and Ple- 
beians, to exhibit certain public games. 

The qucEstors were officers elected by the people, to take 
care of the public revenues ; there were at first only two 
of them, but two others were afterwards added to accom- 
pany the armies ; and upon the conquest of all Italy, four 
more were created, who remained in the provinces. 

The principal charge of the city quaestors was the care 
of the treasury ; they received and expended the public 
money, and exacted the fines imposed by the people : they 
kept the military standards, entertained foreign ambassa- 
dors, and took charge of the funerals of those who were 
buried at the public expense. 

Commanders returning from war, before they could ob- 
tain a triumph, were obliged to take an oath before the 
quaestors, that they had written to the senate a true account 
of the number of the enemy they had slain, and of the cit- 
izens who were missing. 



48 ROMAN ANTIQUITIES. 

The office of the provincial quaestors was io attend the 
consuls or praetors into their provinces; to furnish the pro- 
visions and pay for the army ; to exact the taxes and trib- 
ute of the empire, and sell the spoils taken in war. 

The quaestorship was the first step of preferment to the 
other public offices, and to admission into the senate : its 
continuation was for but one year, and no one could be a 
candidate for it until he had completed his twenty-seventh 
year. 

Legati were those next in authority to the quaestors, and 
appointed either by the senate or president of the province, 
who was then said to aliquem sibi legare. 

The office of the legati was very dignified and honora- 
able. They acted as lieutenants or deputies in any busi- 
ness for which they were appointed, and were sometimes 
allowed the honor of lictors. 

The dictator was a magistrate invested with royal author- 
ity, created in perilous circumstances, in time of pestilence, 
sedition, or when the commonwealth was attacked by dan- 
gerous enemies. 

His power was supreme both in peace and war, and was 
even above the laws ; he could raise and disband armies, 
and determine upon the life and fortune of Roman citizens, 
without consulting the senate or people; when he was ap- 
pointed, all other magistrates resigned their offices except 
the tribunes of the commons. 

The dictator could continue in office only six months : 
but he usually resigned when he had effected the busi- 
ness for which he had been created. He was neither per- 
mitted to go out of Italy> nor ride on horseback, without 
the permission of the people ; but the principal check 
against any abuse of power, was that he might be called to 
an account for his conduct, when he resigned his office. 

A master of horse was nominated by the dictator imme- 
diately after his creation, usually from those of consular or 
praetorian rank, whose office was to command the cavalry, 
and execute the orders of the dictator. 

The decemviri were ten men invested with supreme 
power, who were appointed to draw up a code of laws, all 
the other magistrates having first resigned their offices. 

They at first behaved with great moderation, and admin- 
istered justice to the people every tenth day. Ten tables 
of laws were proposed by them, and ratified by the people 
at the comitia centuriata. 



ROMAN ANTIQUITIES. 49 

As two other tables seemed to be wanting, decemviri 
were again appointed for another year, to make them. But 
as these new magistrates acted tyrannically, and seemed 
disposed to retain their command beyond the legal time, 
they were compelled to resign, chiefly on account of the 
base passion of Appius Claudius, one of their number, for 
Virginia, a virgin of plebeian rank, who was slain by her 
father to prevent her falling into the decemvir's hands. 
The decemviri all perished, either in prison or in banish- 
ment. 

The consuls and all the chief magistrates, except the 
censors and the tribunes of the people, were preceded in 
public by a certain number, according to their rank of of- 
fice, called lictors, each bearing on his shoulders as the in- 
signia of office, the fasces and securis, which were a bundle 
of rods, with an axe in the centre of one end ; but the lic- 
tors in attendance on an inferior magistrate, carried the 
fasces only, without the axe, to denote that he was not pos- 
sessed of the power of capital punishments. 

They opened a way through the crowd for the consul, 
saying words like these — " cedite, Consul venit" or " date 
viam Consuli." It was their duty also to inflict punish- 
ment on the condemned. 



CHAPTER XVIL 

Of Military Affairs. 

According to the Roman constitution, every free-born 
citizen was a soldier, and bound to serve if called upon, in 
the armies of the state at any period, from the age of seven- 
teen to forty-six. 

When the Romans thought themselves injured by any 
nation, they sent one or more of the priests, called feciales t 
to demand redress, and if it was not immediately given, 
thirty-three days were granted to consider the matter, after 
which war might be justly declared ; then the feciales again 
went to their confines, and having thrown a bloody spear 
into them, formally declared war against that nation. 

The levy of the troops, the encampment, and much of 
the civil discipline, as well as the temporary command of 
5* 



50 ROMAN ANTIQUITIES. 

ihe army, was intrusted to the military tribunes, six of 
whom were appointed to each legion. 

During the early period of the republic, the standing 
army in time of peace usually consisted of only four legions, 
two of which were commanded by each consul, and they 
were relieved by new levies every year, the soldiers then 
serving without any pay beyond their mere subsistence. 
But this number was afterwards greatly augmented, and 
the inconvenience of raw troops having been experienced, 
a fixed stipend in money was allowed to the men, and they 
were constantly retained in the service. 

The legion usually consisted of three hundred horse, 
and three thousand foot: the different kinds of infantry 
which composed it were three, the hastati, principes, and 
triarii. The first were so called because they fought with 
spears : they consisted of young men in the flower of life, 
and formed the first line in battle. The principes were 
men of middle age who occupied the second line. The 
triarii were old soldiers of approved valor, who formed the 
third line. 

There was a fourth kind of troops, called vetttes from 
their swiftness and agility: these did not form a part of the 
legion, and had no certain post assigned them, but fought 
in scattered parties, wherever occasion required, usually 
before the lines. 

The imperial eagle was the common standard of the le- 
gion ; it was of gilt metal, borne on a spear by an officer of 
rank, styled, from his office, aquilifer, and was regarded by 
the soldiery with the greatest reverence. There were oth- 
er ensigns, as A. B. C. D. in the frontispiece. 

The only musical instruments used in the Roman army, 
were brazen trumpets of different forms, adapted to the 
various duties of the service. 

The arms of the soldiery varied according to the battal- 
ion in which they served. Some were equipped with light 
javelins, and others with a missile weapon, called pilum, 
which they flung at the enemy ; but all carried shields and 
short swords of that description, usually styled cut and 
thrust, which they wore on the right side, to prevent its in- 
terfering with the buckler, which they bore on the left 
arm. 

The shield was of an oblong or oval shape, with an iron 
boss jutting out in the middle, to glance oft stones or darts ; 



ROMAN ANTIQUITIES. 51 

it- was four feet long and two and a half broad, made of 
pieces of wood joined together with small plates of iron, 
and the whole covered with a bull's hide. 

They were partly dressed in a metal cuirass with an un- 
der covering of cloth ; on the head they wore helmets of 
brass, either fastened under the chin, with plates of the 
same metal, or reaching to the shoulders, which they cov- 
ered and ornamented on the top with flowing tufts of horse 
hair. 

The light infantry were variously armed with slings and 
darts as well as swords, and commonly wore a shaggy cap, 
in imitation of the head of some wild beast, of which the 
skin hung over their shoulders. The troops of the line 
wore greaves on the legs and heavy iron-bound sandals on 
the feet. These last were called caligce, from which the 
emperor Caius Caesar obtained the name of Caligula, in 
consequence of having worn them in his youth among the 
soldiery. 

The cavalry were armed with spears and wore a coat of 
mail of chain work, or scales of brass or steel, often plated 
with gold, under which was a close garment that reached 
to their buskins. The helmet was surmounted with a 
plume, and with an ornament distinctive of each rank, or 
with some device according to the fancy of the wearers, and 
which was then, as now in heraldry, denominated the crest. 
This term was crista, derived from the resemblance of the 
ornament to the comb of a cock. 

The Romans made no use of saddles or stirrups, but 
merely cloths folded according to the convenience of the 
rider. 

Among the instruments used in war were towers consist- 
ing of different stories, from which showers of darts were 
discharged on the townsmen by means of engines called 
catapultce, balistce, and scorpiones. 

But the most dreadful machine of all was the battering 
ram : this was a long beam like the mast of a ship, and 
armed at one end with iron, in the form of a ram's head, 
whence it had its name. It was suspended by the middle, 
with ropes or chains fastened to a beam which lay across 
wo posts, and hanging thus equally balanced, it was vio- 
ently thrust forward, drawn back, and again pushed for- 
ward, until by repeated strokes it had broken down the wall. 



52 ROMAN ANTIQUITIES. 

The discipline of the army was maintained with great 
severity ; officers were exposed to degradation for miscon- 
duct, and the private soldier to corporal punishment. 
Whole legions who had transgressed their military duty 
were exposed to decimation, which consisted in drawing 
their names by lot, and putting every tenth man to the 
sword. 

The most common rewards were crowns of different 
forms ; the mural crown was presented to him who in the 
assault first scaled the rampart of a town ; the castral, to 
those who were foremost in storming the enemy's entrench- 
ments ; the civic chaplet of oak leaves, to the soldier who 
saved his comrade's life in battle, and the triumphal laurel 
wreath to the general who commanded in a successful en- 
gagement. The radial crown was that worn by the empe- 
rors. 

When an army was freed from a blockade, the soldiers 
gave their deliverer a crown called obsidionalis , made of 
the grass which grew in the besieged place ; and to him 
who first boarded the ship of an enemy, a naval crown. 

But the greatest distinction that could be conferred on 
a commander, was a triumph ; this was granted only by 
the senate, on the occasion of a great victory. When de- 
creed, the general returned to Rome, and was appointed 
by a special edict to the supreme command in the city; on 
the day of his entry, a triumphal arch was erected of sculp- 
tured masonry, under which the procession passed. 

First came a detachment of cavalry, with a band of mil- 
itary music preceding a train of priests in their robes, who 
were followed by a hecatomb of the whitest oxen with gild- 
ed horns entwined with flowers ; next were chariots, laden 
with the spoils of the vanquished; and after them, long 
ranks of chained captives conducted by files of lictors. 
Then came the conqueror, clothed in purple and crowned 
with laurel, having an ivory sceptre in his hand; a band of 
children followed dressed in white, who threw perfumes from 
silver censors, while they chanted the hymns of victory 
and the praises of the conqueror. The march was closed 
by the victorious troops, with their weapons wreathed with 
laurel; the procession marched to the temple of Jupiter, 
where the victor descended and dedicated his spoils to the 
gods. 

When the objects of the war had been obtained by a 
bloodless victory, a minor kind of triumph was granted, in 



ROMAN ANTIQUITIES, 53 

which the general appeared on horseback, dressed in white, 
and crowned with myrtle, while in his hand he bore a 
branch of olive. No other living sacrifice was offered but 
sheep, from the name of which the ceremony was called an 
ovation. 

In consequence of the continual depredations to which 
the coast of Italy was subject, the Romans commenced the 
building of a number of vessels, to establish a fleet, taking 
for their model a Carthaginian vessel, which was formerly 
stranded on their coast. 

Their vessels were of two kinds, naves oneraricB, ships 
of burden, and naves longce, ships of war : the former serv- 
ed to carry provisions, &c. : they were almost round, very 
deep, and impelled by sails. 

The ships of war received their name from the number 
of banks of oars, one above another, which they contained : 
thus a ship with three banks of oars was called triremis, 
one with four, quadriremis, &c. ; in these, sails were not 
used. 



CHAPTER XVIIT. 

Assemblies, Judicial Proceedings, and Punishments of the 
Romans. 

The assemblies of the whole Roman people, to give their 
vote on any subject, were called comitia. There were 
three kinds, the curiata, centuriata, and tributa. 

The comitia curiata were assemblies of the resident 
Roman citizens, who were divided into thirty curice, a ma- 
jority of which determined all matters of importance that 
were laid before them, such as the election of magistrates, 
the enacting of laws and judging of capital causes. 

Comitia centuriata were assemblies of the various cen- 
turies into which the six classes of the people were di- 
vided. 

Those who belonged to the first class were termed clas- 
sici, by way of pre-eminence — hence auctores classici, res- 
pectable or standard authors; those of the last class, who 
had no fortune, were called capite censi, or proletarii ; and 
those belonging to the middle classes were all said to be 
infra classem— below the class. 



54 ROMAN ANTIQUITIES. 

Comiiia centuriata were the most important of all the as- 
semblies of the people. In these, laws were enacted, mag- 
istrates elected, and criminals tried. Their meeting was 
in the Campus Martius. 

It was necessary that these assemblies should have been 
summoned seventeen days previously to their meeting, in 
order that the people might have time to reflect on the bus- 
iness which was to be transacted. 

Candidates for any public office, who were to be elected 
here, were obliged to give in their names before the comitia 
were summoned. Those who did so, were said to petere 
consulatum vel prazturam, &c. ; and they wore a white 
robe called toga Candida, to denote the purity of their mo- 
tives ; on which account they were called candidati. 

Candidates went about to solicit votes (ambire,) accom- 
panied by a nomenclator, whose duty it was to whisper the 
names of those whose votes they desired ; for it was sup- 
posed to be an insult not to know the name of a Roman 
citizen. 

Centuria prcerogativa was that century which obtained 
by ballot the privilege of voting first. 

When the centuria prcerogativa had been elected, the 
presiding magistrate sitting in a tent (tabernaculumj called 
upon it to come and vote. All that century then immedi- 
ately separated themselves from the rest, and entered into 
that place of the Campus Martius, called septa or ovilia. 
Going into this, they had to cross over a little (bridge 
(pons ;) hence the phrase de ponte dejici — -to be deprived of 
the elective franchise. 

At the farther end of the septa stood officers, called 
diribitores, who handed waxen tablets to the voters, with 
the names of the candidates written upon them. The 
voter then putting a mark (punctus) on the name of him 
for whom he voted, threw the tablet into a large chest ; and 
when all were done, the votes were counted. 

If the votes of a century for different magistrates, or res- 
pecting any law, were equal when counted, the vote of the 
entire century was not reckoned among the votes of the 
other centuries; but in trials of life and death, if the tab- 
lets pro and con were equal, the criminal was acquitted. 

The candidate for whom the greatest number of centu 
ries voted, was duly elected, (renunciatus est:) when th» 
votes were unanimous, he was said ferre omne punctum— 
to be completely successful. 



ROMAN ANTIQUITIES. 55 

j 

When a law was proposed, two ballots were given to 
each voter : one with U. R. written upon it, Uti Rogas — 
as you propose ; and the other with A. for Antiquo — I am 
for the old one. 

In voting on an impeachment, one tablet was marked 
with A. for Absolvo — I acquit ; hence this letter was 
called liter a salutaris ; the other with C. for condemno — I 
condemn ; hence C. was called litera tristis. 

In the comitia tributa, the people voted, divided into 
tribes, according to their regions or wards ; they were 
held to create inferior magistrates, to elect certain priests, 
to make laws, and to hold trials. 

The comitia continued to be assembled for upwards of 
seven hundred years, when that liberty was abridged by 
Julius Caesar, and after him by Augustus, each of whom 
shared the right of creating magistrates with the people. 
Tiberius the second emperor, deprived the people altogeth- 
er of the right ot election. 

The extension of the Roman empire, the increase of 
riches, and consequently of crime, gave occasion to a great 
number of new laws, which were distinguished by the name 
of the person who proposed them, and by the subject to 
which they referred. 

Civil trials, or differences between private persons were 
tried in the forum by the praetor. If no adjustment could 
be made between the two parties, the plaintiff obtained a 
writ from the praetor, which required the defendant to give 
bail for his appearance on the third day, at which time, if 
either was not present when cited, he lost his cause, unless 
he had a valid excuse. 

Actions were either real, personal, or mixed. Real, was 
for obtaining a thing to which one had a real right, but was 
possessed by another. Personal, was against a person to 
bind him to the fulfilment of a contract, or to obtain redress 
for wrongs. Mixed, was when the actions had relation to 
persons and things. 

After the plaintiff had presented his case for trial, judges 
were appointed by the praetor, to hear and determine the 
matter, and fix the number of witnesses, that the suit 
might not be unreasonably protracted. The parties gave 
security that they would abide by the judgment, and the 
judges took a solemn oath to decide impartially ; after this 
the cause was argued on botli sides, assisted by witnesses, 



56 ROMAN ANTIQUITIES. 

writings, &c. In giving sentence, the votes of a majority 
of the judges were necessary to decide against the defend- 
ant; but if the number was equally divided, it was left to 
the praetor to determine. 

Trial by jury, as established with us, was not known, but 
the mode of judging in criminal cases, seems to have re- 
sembled it. A certain number of senators and knights, or 
other citizens of respectability, were annually chosen by 
the prsetor, to act as his assessors, and some of these were 
appointed to sit in judgment with him. They decided by 
a majority of voices, and returned their verdict, either guil- 
ty, not guilty, or uncertain, in which latter instance the 
case was deferred ; but if the votes for acquittal and con- 
demnation were equal, the culprit was discharged. 

There were also officers called centumviri, to the number 
at first of 100, but afterwards of 180, who were chosen 
equally, from the 35 tribes, and together with the prsstor 
constituted a court of justice. 

Candidates for office wore a white robe, rendered shining 
by the art of the fuller. They did not wear tunics, or waist- 
coats, either that they might appear more humble, or might 
more easily show the scars they had received on the breast. 

For a long time before the election, they endeavored to 
gain the favor of the people, by every popular art, by going 
to their houses, by shaking hands with those they met, by 
addressing them in a kindly manner, and calling them by 
name, on which occasion they commonly had with them a 
monitor, who whispered in their ears every body's name. 

Criminal law was in many instances more severe than it 
is at the present day. Thus adultery, which now only sub- 
jects the offender to a civil suit, was by the Romans, as 
well as the ancient Jews, punished corporally. 

Forgery was not punished with death, unless the culprit 
was a slave ; but freemen guilty of that crime were subject 
to banishment, which deprived them of their property and 
privileges; and false testimony, coining, and those offences 
which we term misdemeanors, exposed them to an interdic- 
tion from fire and water, or in fact an excommunication 
from society, which necessarily drove them into banish- 
ment. 

The punishments inflicted among the Romans, were — 
fine, (damnum,) bonds, (vincula,) stripes, (verbcra,) retal- 
iation, (ialio,) infamy, (ignnminia,) banishment, (exilium,) 
slavery, (servitus,) and death. 



ROMAN ANTIQUITIES. 57 

The methods of inflicting death were various; the 
chief were — beheading (percussio securi), strangling in 
prison (strangulatio), throwing a criminal from that part of 
the prison called Robur (precipitatio de robore), throwing 
a criminal from the Tarpeian rock (dejectio e rupe Tar- 
peia), crucifixion (in cmcem actio), and throwing into the 
river (projectio in profluentem). 

The last-mentioned punishment was inflicted upon par- 
ricides, or the murderers of any relation. So soon as 
any one was convicted of such crimes, he was immediate- 
ly blindfolded as unworthy of the light, and in the next 
place whipped with rods. He was then sewed up in a 
sack, and thrown into the sea. In after times, to add to 
the punishment, a serpent was put in the sack ; and still 
later, an ape, a dog, and a cock. The sack which held 
the malefactor was called Culeus, on which account the 
punishment itself is often signified by the same name. 

In the time of Nero, the punishment for treason was, 
to be stripped stark naked, and with the head held up by a 
fork to be whipped to death. 



CHAPTER XIX. 

The Roman Dress. 

The ordinary garments of the Romans were the toga and 
the tunic. 

The toga was a loose woollen robe, of a semicircular 
form, without sleeves, open from the waist upwards, but 
closed from thence downwards, and surrounding the limbs 
as far as the middle of the leg. The upper part of the vest 
was drawn under the right arm, which was thus left un- 
covered, and, passing over the left shoulder, was there gath- 
ered in a knot, whence it fell in folds across the breast : 
this flap being tucked into the girdle, formed a cavity 
which sometimes served as a pocket, and was frequently 
used as a covering for the head. Its color was white, ex- 
cept in case of mourning, when a black or dark color was 
worn. The Romans were at great pains to adjust the toga 
and make it hang gracefully. 
6 



58 ROMAN ANTIQUITIES. 

It was at first worn by women as well as men — but after- 
wards matrons wore a different robe, called stola, with a 
broad border or fringe, reaching to the feet. Courtezans, 
and women condemned for adultery, were not permitted to 
wear the stola — hence called togatce. 

Roman citizens only were permitted to wear the toga, 
and banished persons were prohibited the -use of it. The 
toga picta was so termed from the rich embroidery with 
which it was covered : — the toga palmata from its being 
wrought in figured palm leaves — this last was the triumph- 
al habit. 

Young men, until they were seventeen years of age, and 
young women until they were married, wore a gown bor- 
dered with purple, called the toga prcetcxta. 

After they had arrived at the age of seventeen, young 
men assumed the toga virilis. 

The tunic was a white woollen vest worn below the toga, 
coming down a little below the knees before, and to the 
middle of the leg behind, at first without sleeves. Tunics 
with sleeves were reckoned effeminate : but under the em- 
perors, these were used with fringes at the hands. The 
tunic was fastened by a girdle or belt about the waist, to 
keep it tight, which also served as a purse. 

The women wore a tunic which came down to their feet 
and covered their arms. 

Senators had a broad stripe of purple, sewed on the breast 
of their tunic, called latus clavus, which is sometimes put 
for the tunic itself, or the dignity of a senator. 

The equitcs were distinguished by a narrow stripe called 
angustus clavus. 

The Romans wore neither stockings nor breeches, but 
used sometimes to wrap their legs and thighs with pieces of 
cloth called from the parts which they covered, tibialia and 
feminalia. 

The chief coverings for the feet were the calccus, which 
covered the whole foot, somewhat like our shoes, and was 
tied above with a latchet or lace, and the solea, a slipper or 
sandal which covered only the sole of the foot, and was 
fastened on with leather thongs or strings. 

The shoes of the senators came up to the middle of their 
legs, and had a golden or silver crescent on the top of the 
foot. The shoes of the soldiery were called caligcc, some- 
times shod with nails. Comedians wore the socci or slip- 
pers, and tragedians the cothurni. 



ROMAN ANTIQUITIES. 59 

The ancient Romans went with their heads bare except 
at sacred rites, games, festivals, on journey or in war. — 
Hence, of all the honors decreed to Caesar by the senate, 
he is said to have been chiefly pleased with that of always 
wearing a laurel crown, because it covered his baldness, 
which was reckoned a deformity. At games and festivals 
a woollen cap or bonnet was worn. 

The head-dress of women was at first very simple. They 
seldom went abroad, and when they did they almost always 
had their faces veiled. But when riches and luxury in- 
creased, dress became, with many, the chief object of at- 
tention. They anointed their hair with the richest per- 
fumes, and sometimes gave it a bright yellow color, by 
means of a composition or wash. It was likewise adorned 
with gold and pearls and precious stones: sometimes with 
garlands and chaplets of flowers. 



CHAPTER XX. 

Of the Fine Arts and Literature. 

The Romans invented short or abridged writing, which 
enabled their secretaries to collect the speeches of orators, 
however rapidly delivered. The characters used by such 
writers were called notes. They did not consist in letters 
of the alphabet, but certain marks, one of which often ex- 
pressed a whole word, and frequently a phrase. The same 
description of writing is known at the present day by the 
word stenography. From notes came the word notary, 
which was given to all who professed the art of quick 
writing. 

The system of note-writing was not suddenly brought to 
perfection : it only came into favor when the professors 
most accurately reported an excellent speech which Cato 
pronounced in the senate. The orators, the philosophers, 
the dignitaries, and nearly all the rich patricians then took 
for secretaries note-writers, to whom they allowed handsome 
pay. It was usual to take from their slaves all who had 
intellect to acquire a knowledge of that art. 

The fine arts were unknown at Rome, until their suc- 
cessful commanders brought from Syracuse, Asia, Mace- 
donia and Corinth, the various specimens which those 



60 koman LNTtQl u | 

So ignorant, tad their 

rorth, that when of Mummius had given 

finest productions of Gn 

e persons to whom he intrusted the 

tique statues and rare pictures. "thai 

| lost those, they shook) giro him new ones." A taste 

- began to prevail, which they gratified at the ox- 

. of public justice and private 

of printing being unknown, hooks were somc- 

M) parchment, but more generally on a paper 

I plant called ;\ : its, whioh grni 

and w is red in Egypt 'Tins plant was about ten cn- 

S bigh, and had several coats or skins, one above anoth- 
er, which they separated with a net 

instrument used tor writing WIS a reed, sharpened 
and split at the point, like our pens, called calamus. 
Their ink was sometimes composed ot' a black liquid 
emit ed by the cuttle fish. 

The Romans commonly wrote only en one side ot" the 
. and joined one sheet to the end ot' another, till they 
finished what they had to write, and then rolled it on a 
cylinder or staff, hence called voiumai. 

But memoranda or other unimportant matters, not m- 
d to be preserved, were usually written on tablets 
spread with wax. This was effected by means ot' a metal 
pencil called sty&IS, pointed at one end to scrape the let- 
id flat at the other to smooth the wax when ar.y cor- 
rection was . essary. 

Julius Caesar introduced the custom of folding letters 
in a fiat square form, which were then divided into small 
pages, in the manner of a modern book. When forward- 
ed for delivery, they were usually perfumed and tied round 
with a silken thread, the ends of which were sealed with 
common wax. 

Letters were not subscribed ; but the name oi the wri- 

ind that of the person to whom they were addressed. 

were inserted at the commencement — thus. Julius C&sar 

to his friend Antony, health. At the end was written a 

simple. Farewell ! 

The Romans had many private and public libraries. 
Adjoining to some of them were museums for the accom- 
modation of a college or society ol learned men. who were 



ROMAN ANTIQUITIES. 61 

supported there at the public expense, with a covered walk 
and seals, where they might dispute. 

The first public library at Rome, and probably in the 

world, was erected by Aslnius Pollio, in the temple of lib- 
erty, on Mount Aventine. This was adorned by the stat- 
ues of the most celebrated men. 



CHAPTER XXI. 

Roman Houses. 

Tin: houses of the Romans are supposed at first to 
have been nothing more than thatched cottages. After 
the city was burnt by the Gauls, it was rebuilt in a more 
solid and commodious manner % but the streets were very 
irregular. 

In the time of Nero the city was set on fire, and more 
than two-thirds of it burnt to the ground. That tyrant 
himself is s u i d to have been the author of this conflagra- 
tion, ife beheld it from the tower of Maecenas, and be- 
ing delighted, as he said, with the beauty of the flames, 
played the taking of Troy, dressed like an actor. 

The city was t fieri rebuilt with greater regularity and 
splendor — the streets were widened, the height of the 
! was limited to seventy feet, and each house had a 
portico before it, fronting the street. 

Nero (-reefed for himself a palace of extraordinary 
extent and magnificence. The enclosure extended from 
the Palatine to the Esquiline mount, which was more than 
a mile in breadth, and it was entirely surrounded with a 
spacious portico embellished with sculpture and statuary, 
among which stood a colossal statue of Nero himself, one 
hundred and twenty feet in height. The apartments were 
lined with marble, enriched with jasper, topaz, and other 
precious gems : the timber works and ceilings were inlaid 
with gold, ivory and mother of pearl. 

This noble edifice, which from its magnificence obtained 
the appellation of the golden house, was destroyed by 
Vespasian as being too gorgeous for the residence even of 
a Roman emperor. 

The lower floors of the houses of the great were, at this 
time, either inlaid marble or mosaic work. Every thing 
6* 



MKII v\ v\ INIQUITIES 

curious ornament and furniture 

Tho number of stories wis general)) two, with oj 

.apartments. I uts^werel rooma 

and bed-chamber ; on the second, the dining-room 
its of the i 

Romans used portable furnaces vn their rooms. OD 
which account they had little use tor chimneys, except tor 
the kite lien. 

T m windows of some of then houses wi with 

a thick kind of glass, not perfectly transparent : m Others, 

ss split mto thin plates was used. Perfect)) trans- 

ss was so rare and valuable at Rome, that Nero is 

said to have given a sum equal to £50,000 for two cups ot" 

such glass with handles. 

Houses not joined with the neighboring ones were called 

- also lodgings or houses to let. The inhabitants 

bonsOS or lodgings. Insulurii or liujuilini. 

principal parts of a private house were the c t \<tibu- 

-. court before ,\which was ornamented tO- 

: with a portico extending along the entire 

The atrium or hall, which was in the form of an oblong 

square, surrounded by galleries supported on pillars. It 

contained a hearth on which a tire was kept constantly 

burning, and around which were ranged the l<.:ri>. or uii- 

- of the ancestors of the family. 

so were usually nothing more than waxen busts, 
and, though held in great respect, weie not treated with 
the same veneration as the penates^ or household gods, 
which were considered of divine origin, and were never 
exposed to the view of strangers, but were kept in an inner 
apartment, called ^>r«< r><f//<7. 

outer door was furnished with a bell : the entrance 
ruarded by a slave in chains : he was armed with a 
staff, and attended by a I 

The houses had high sloping roofs, covered with broad 
tiles, and there was usually an open space in the centre to 
afford light to the inner apart meats. 

The Romans were unacquainted with the use o\ chim- 
nies, and were consequently much annoyed by smoke. To 
remedy this, they sometimes anointed the wood of which 
their fuel was composed, with lees o\' oil. 

The windows were closed with blinds of linen or plates 
of horn, but more generally with shutters of wood. Dur- 



fcOMAM AKTIQUIT11 60 

tug the uti\<: of the emper< of tra ns pare n t 

eui into pi used for the purport. Ola was not 

need for the admission of light into the apartment! until 
toward- die fifth century of the christian era. 

A villa wai originally a farm-house of an ordinary kind, 
and occupied by the industrious cultivator of the soil ; 
hot irhen increasing riches inspired the citizens s/ith a 
tafte fin new pleasures, it. became the abode of opulence 
and luxury- 

Some villas irere surrounded with large parka, in irhicfa 
floor and various foreign wild animals irere kept, and in 
order to render the sheep that pastured on die lawn orna- 
mental, we are told that they often dyed their fleeces with 

various oolours. 

Large fiah ponds were alao a common appendage to the 
rillas of person of fortune, and great expense was often 
incurred in stocking them. In general, however, country 
bouses woro merely surrounded with gardens, of which 
the Romans were extravagantly fond. 



CHAPTER XXIL 

Marriages and funerals. 

A uakujaoi; ceremony was never solemnized without 
consulting the auspices, and offering sacrifices to the gods, 
particularly to Juno; and the animals offered up on the 
occasion were deprived of their gall, in allusion to the 
absence of <^<-ry thing hitter and malignant in the propos- 
ed union. 

A legal marriage was made in three different ways, call- 
ed confarreatio, u§ui and (ouiiptio. 

The first of these was the most ancient. A priest, in 
the presence often witnesses, made an offering to the gods, 
of a cake composed of salt water, and that kind of flour called 
"far" from which the name of the ceremony was derived. 
The bride and bridegroom mutually partook of this, to 
denote the union that was to subsist between them, and 
the sacrifice of a sheep ratified the interchange of their 
vows. 

When a woman, with the consent of her parents or 



«il ROMAN A\riQirni,s 

guardian, lived an entire yeaf with ;i man, with the inton- 
lion of becoming hia wife, it was called Msttt. 

Coemptfo was an imaginary purchase which the husband 
and wire made «>t" each other, by the exchange of some 
pieces o[' money. 

A plurality of wives was forbidden among the Romans. 

The marriageable age was from fourteen for men, ami 
twelve tin girls. 

i>[\ the wedding day the bride was dressed in a simple 
robe of pure white, bound with a zone o( wool, whioh her 
husband alone was to unloose: her hair was divided into 

six Inks, with the point of a spear, ami crowned with 

Bowers ; she wok 1 a saffron colored veil, whioh envel- 
oped the entire person: her shoos were yellow, ami had 
unusually high heels to give her an appearanoe of greater 
dignity. 

'Thus attired she waited the arrival of the bridegroom, 
who went with a party of friends ami carried her off with 

an nppearanoe Of Violence, from the arms of her parents, 

to denote the reluctance she was supposed to feel at leav- 
ing her paternal roof. 

The nuptial ceremony was then performed; in the 
evening she was conducted to her future home, preceded 
by the priests, and followed by her relations, friends, and 
servants, oarrying presents ol various domestic utensils. 

The door oi' the bridegroom's house was hung with gar- 
lands of flowers, When the bride came hither, she was 
asked who she was; she answered, addressing the bride- 
groom, "Where thou art Tains, there shall I be Caia. 11 
intimating that she would imitate the exemplary hie of 

Caia, (hi 1 wife ol* Tarquinius Priseus. She was then lift- 
ed over the threshold, or gently stepped over, it being 

Considered ominous to tOUCh it with her feet, beeause 

it was sacred to Vesta tin 1 goddess oi' Virgins. 

(Jpbn her entrance, the keys of the house were deliver- 
ed to her. to denote her being intrusted with the man- 
agement o\' the family, and both she and her hushaml 
touched lire and water to intimate that their union was 

to last through every extremity. The bridegroom then 
gave a great supper to all the company. Tins feast was 
accompanied with music ami dancing, ami the guests 

sano- a nuptial song in praise of the new married couple. 

The Romans paid great attention to funeral rites, be- 
cause they believed that the souls of the unburied were 



ROMAN ANTIOJ II IIS. 65 

not Admitted into the abodes of" the dead ; or at least 
wandered a hundred years along the nvcr Styx before 
they were allowed to cross it. 

When any one was at the point, of death, his nearest re- 
lation present endeavored to catch his last breath with his 
mouth, lor ilny believed that the soul or living principle 

thus went OUt at the mouth. The corpse Wai then bathed 

and perfumed ; dressed in the richest robes of tin; d< 

edj and laid upon a couch strewn with (lowers, with the 

feet towards the outer door. 

The funeral took place by torch light The corpse 

W8J carried with the led. foremo: t on ;m open t/ier cov- 
ered with the richest cloth, and home by the nearest rel- 
atives and friendsi It was preceded l»y the image of the 
deceased, together with those of his ancestors. 

The procession was attended by musicians, with wind 
instruments of a larger size and a deeper tone than those 

u. 'd on li :,s solemn occasions; mourning women were 
likewise hired to ling the praises of the deceased. 

On the conclusion of the ceremony the sepulchre was 
strewed with Dowers, and the mourners took a last fare- 
well of the remains of the deceased. Water was then 

thrown upon the attendants, \>y a priest, to purify them 
from tin: pollution which the ;mr,ieuts supposed to he com- 
municated by ;iny contact with a corpse. 

The manes of the dead were supposed to be propitiated 
hy blood: — on this account ;i custom prevailed of slaugh- 
tering, on the tomb of the deceased, those animals of 

which be was most fond when living. 

When the OUStora of burning the 'lead was introduced, 
a funeral pile was constructed in the shape of ;in altar, 
Upon which the corpse was laid ; the nearest, relative then 
set. lire to it: — perfumes .and spices were afterwards 
thrown into the hl;i/.e, ;md when it was extinguished, the 
embers were quenched with wine. The BSheS were then 
collected and despot ited in an urn, to he kept in the mau- 
soleum of the family. 



60 ROMAN ANTIQUITIES. 

CHAPTER XXIII. 
Custom at Jfcals. 

The food of the ancient Romans was o( the simplest 

kind ; they rarely indulged in meat, and wine was almost 
wholly unknown. So averse were they to luxury, that 
epicures were expelled from among them. Bui when 
riches were introduced by the extension of conquest, the 
manners of the people were changed, and the pleasures 
of the table became the chief object of attention. 

Their principal meal was what they called cirna or sup- 
per. The usual time for it was the ninth hour, or about 
three o'clock in the afternoon. 

While at meals, they reclined on sumptuous couches of 
a semi-circular form, around a table of the same shape. 
This custom was introduced from the nations of the east, 
and was at first adopted only by the men, but afterwards 
allowed also to the women. 

The dress worn at table differed from that in use on 
other occasions, and consisted merely ol a loose robe of 
a slight texture, and generally white. 

Before supper the Romans bathed themselves, and took 
various kinds of exercise, such as tennis, throwing the 
discus or quoit, riding, running, leaping, &c. 

Small figures o\" Mercury, Hercules and the penates, 
were placed upon the table, of which they were deemed 
the presiding genii; and a small quantity of wine was 
poured upon the board, at the commencement and end of 
the feast, as a libation in honor of them, accompanied by 
a prayer. 

As the ancients had not proper inns for the accommo- 
dation o( travellers, the Romans, when they were in for- 
eign countries, or at a distance from home, used to lodge 
at the houses of certain persons whom they in return 
entertained at their houses in Rome. This was esteem- 
ed a very intimate connexion, and was called hospitiutn, 
or jus hospitii; hence hospes is put both for a host and a 
guest. 



ROMAN ANTIQUITIES. 67 

CHAPTER XXIV. 

Weights, Measures and Coins, 

The principal Weight in use among the Romans, was 
the pound, called As or Libra, which was equal to 12 oz. 
avoirdupoise, or JO oz. 18 pwts. and 13f grains, troy 
weight. It was divided into twelve ounces, the names of 
which were as follow: Uncia, 1 oz. — Sextans, 2 oz. — 
Trims, '* oz, — Quadrant, 4 oz. — Quincunx, 5 oz. — Sem- 
is, ^ lb. — Septum, 7 oz — Beg, 8 oz. — JJodrans, 9 OZ. — 
Dextang, 10 oz. — Deunx, 11 oz. 

The As and its divisions were applied to any thing di- 
vided into twelve parts, as well as to a pound weight The 
twelth part of an acre was called Uncia and half a foot, 
Semis, &,o. 

The Measures for things dry. — Modius, a peck — 
Semimodius , a gallon — Sextanus, a pint — Hemina, one-half 
pint, and !{ smaller measures, for which we have not equiv- 
alent names in English. One Modius contained 2 Sem- 
imodii — each Semimodius contained 8 Sextarii — each Sex- 
tarius, 2 HendntB — each Hemina, 4 Acetabula — each 
Acetabulum, ]i Ci/athi — each Cyathus — 4 Ligulce. 

The Liquid Measures of Capacity were the Culeus, 
which was equal to 144^ gallons — it contained 20 Amphorae 
or Quadrantaks — each Amphora, 2 TJrna — each Uina, 
4 Congit — each Congius, Sextarii — and each Sextarius, 
2 Quartarii or naggins — each Quartarius, 2 lleminai — 
each Hemina, .'$ Acetabula or glasses — each Acetabulum, 
lj Ci/athi — aiid each Cyathus, 4 Ligulce. 

The Measures of Length in use among the Romans 
were, MiUarium or Mille, a mile — each mile contained 8 
Stadia, or furlongs — each Stadium, 125 Passus — each 
Pace, 5 feet. 

The Pes, or foot, was variously divided. It contained 4 
Palmi or band breadths, each of which was therefore 3 in- 
ches Jong — and it contained Jo* Digit i, or finger breadths, 
each of which was therefore three-quarters of an inch long 
— and it contained 12 Uncioz, or inches: any number of 
which was used to signify the same number of ounces. 

Cubitus, a cubit, was l£ feet long — Pollex, a thumb's 
breadth, 1 inch — Palmijjes, a foot and hand's breadth, 
i. c. 15 inches long — Pcrtica i a perch, JO feet long — the 



68 ROMAN ANTIQUITIES. 

lesser Actus was a space of ground 120 feet long by four 
broad — the greater Actus was 120 feet square — two square 
Actus made a Ju^erum, or acre, which contained therefore 
28,000 square feet. 

The first money in use among the Romans was nothing 
more than unsightly lumps of brass, which were valued ac- 
cording to their weight. Servius Tullius stamped these, 
and reduced them to a fixed standard. After his reign, 
the Romans improved the old, and added some new coins. 
Those in most frequent use, were the As, Sestertius, Vic- 
tori at us Denarius, Aureus. 

The AS was a brass coin, stamped on one side with the 
beak of a ship, and on the other with the double head of 
Janus. It originally weighed one pound ; but was after- 
wards reduced to half an ounce, without suffering, however, 
any diminution of value. It was worth one cent and forty- 
three hundredths. 

Sestertius was a silver coin, stamped on one side 
with Castor and Pollux, and on the opposite with the city. 
This was so current a coin, that the word Nummus, money, 
is often used absolutely to express it. It was worth three 
cents and fifty-seven hundredths. 

Denarius was a silver coin, valued at ten asses; that is, 
fourteen cents and thirty-five hundredths of our money. It 
was stamped with the figure of a carriage drawn by four 
beasts, and on the other side, with a head covered with a 
helmet, to represent Rome. 

Victoriatus was a silver coin, half the value of a 
Denarius. It was stamped with the figure of Victory, from 
whence its name was derived. Being worth five Asses, it 
was called Quinarius. 

Libclla, Sembella, Teruneius, were also silver coins, but 
of less value than the above. Libclla was of the same 
worth as the As — Sembella was half a Libella, equal to 
seventy-one hundredths of a cent — and the Teruneius was 
half of a Sembella. 

Aureus Denarius was a gold coin, about the size of a 
silver Denarius, and probably stamped in a similar manner. 
At first, forty Aurei were made out of a pound of gold ; but 
under the Emperors it was not so intrinsically valuable, be- 
ing mixed with alloy. 

The value of the Aureus, which was also called Solidus, 
varied at different times. According to Tacitus, it was val- 



ROMAN ANTIQUITIES. 69 

ued and exchanged for 25 Denarii, which amounted to three 
dollars, fifty-eight cents and seventy-five hundredths. 

The Abbreviations used by the Romans to express 
these various kinds of money, were, for the As, L. — for the 
Sesterce, L. L. S.or H. S. — for the Quinary, V. or ^. — 
for the Denarius, X. or : ! : 

Sesterces were the kind of money in which the Romans 
usually made their computations. — 1,000 Sesterces made 
up a sum called Sestertium, the value of which in our mon- 
ey, was thirty-five dollars and seventy cents. 

The art of reckoning by Sesterces was regulated by 
these rules : 

First — If a numeral adjective were joined to Sestertii, 
and agreed with it in case, it signified just so many Ses- 
terces; as decern Sestertii, 10 Sesterces — thirty-five cents 
and seven tenths. 

Second — If a numeral adjective, of a different case, 
were joined to the genitive plural of Sestertius, it sig- 
nified so many thousand Sesterces ; as decern Sestertium, 
10,000 Sesterces— $357. 

Third — If a numeral adverb were placed by itself, or 
joined to Sestertium, it signified so many hundred thousand 
Sesterces ; as Decies, or decies Sestertium, 1 ,000,000 Sester- 
ces— $35,700. 

Fourth — When the sums are expressed by letters, if the 
letters have a line over them, they signify also so many 
hundred thousand Sesterces : thus, H. S. jyTTc. — denotes 
the sum of 1,100 times 100,000 Sesterces, i. e. 110,000,000 
—nearly $4,000,000. 



MYTHOLOGY 



CHAPTER I. 

Celestial Gods. 



JUPITER, the supreme god of the Pagans, though set 
forth by historians as the wisest of princes, is described by 
his worshippers as infamous for his vices. There were 
many who assumed the name of Jupiter ; the most consid- 
erable, however, and to whom the actions of the others are 
ascribed, was the Jupiter of Crete, son to Saturn and Rhea, 
who is differently said to have had his origin in Crete, at 
Thebes in Boeotia, and among the Messenians. 

His first warlike exploit, and, indeed, the most memora- 
ble of his actions, was his expedition against the Titans, to 
deliver his parents, who had been imprisoned by these 
princes, because Saturn, instead of observing an oath he 
had sworn, to destroy his male children, permitted his son 
Jupiter, by a stratagem of Rhea, to be educated. Jupiter, 
for this purpose, raised a gallant army of Cretans, and en- 
gaged the Cecropes as auxiliaries in this expedition ; but 
these, after taking his money, having refused their services, 
he changed into apes. The valor of Jupiter so animated 
the Cretans, that by their aid he overcame the Titans, re- 
leased his parents, and, the better to secure the reign of his 
father, made all the gods swear fealty to him upon an altar, 
which has since gained a place among the stars. 

This exploit of Jupiter, however, created jealousy in Sat- 
urn, who, having learnt from an oracle, that he should be 



72 MYTHOLOGY. 

dethroned by one of his sons, secretly meditated the de- 
struction of Jupiter as the most formidable of them. The 
design of Saturn being discovered by one of his council, 
Jupiter became the aggressor, deposed his father, threw 
him into Tartarus, ascended the throne, and was acknow- 
ledged as supreme by the rest of the gods. 

The reign of Jupiter being less favorable to his subjects 
than that of Saturn, gave occasion to the name of the sil- 
ver age, by which is meant an age inferior in happiness to 
that which preceded, though superior to those which fol- 
lowed. 

The distinguishing character of his person is majesty, and 
every thing about him carries dignity and authority with it ; 
his look is meant to strike sometimes with terror, and some- 
times with gratitude, but always with respect. The Capi- 
toline Jupiter, or the Jupiter Optimus Maximus, (him now 
spoken of,) was the great guardian of the Romans, and was 
represented, in his chief temple, on the Capitoline hill, as 
sitting on a curule chair, with the lightning in his right 
hand, and a sceptre in his left. 

The poets describe him as standing amidst his rapid hor- 
ses, or his horses that make the thunder ; for as the ancients 
had a strange idea of the brazen vault of heaven, they 
seem to have attributed the noise in a thunder storm 
to the rattling of Jupiter's chariot and horses on that great 
arch of brass all over their heads, as they supposed that 
he himself flung the flames out of his hand, which dart at 
the same time out of the clouds, beneath this arch. 

APOLLO was son of Jupiter and Latona, and brother of 
Diana, and of all the divinities in the pagan world, the 
chief cherisher and protecter of the polite arts, and the 
most conspicuous character in heathen theology ; nor 
unjustly, from the glorious attributes ascribed to him, for 
he was the god of light, medicine, eloquence, music, poe- 
try and prophecy. 

Amongst the most remarkable adventures of this god, 
was his quarrel with Jupiter, on account of the death of 
his son ^Esculapius, killed by that deity on the complaint 
of Pluto, that he decreased the number of the dead by 
his cures. Apollo, to revenge this injury, killed the 
Cyclops who forged the thunder-bolts. For this he was 
banished heaven, and endured great sufferings on earth, 
being forced to hire himself as a shepherd to Admetus, 
king of Thessaly. During his pastoral servitude, he is said 




:=:.' 



MYTHOLOGY. 73 

to have invented the lyre to sooth his troubles. He was 
so skilled in the bow, that his arrows were always fatal. 
Python and the Cyclops experienced their force. 

He became enamored of Daphne, daughter of the river 
Peneus of Thessaly. The god pursued her, but she flying 
to preserve her chastity, was changed into a laurel, whose 
leaves Apollo immediately consecrated to bind his temples, 
and become the reward of poetry. 

His temple at Delphi became so frequented, that it was 
called the oracle of the earth ; all nations and princes vie- 
ing in their munificence to it. The Romans erected to him 
many temples. 

The animals sacred to him were the wolf, from his 
acuteness of sight, and because he spared his flocks when 
the god was a shepherd ; the crow and the raven, because 
these birds were supposed to have, by instinct, the faculty 
of prediction ; the swan, from its divining its own death ; 
the hawk, from its boldness in flight; and the cock, because 
he announces the rising of the sun. 

As to the signification of this fabulous divinity, all are 
agreed that, by Apollo, the sun is understood in general, 
though several poetical fictions have relation only to the 
sun, and not to Apollo. The great attributes of this 
deity were divination, healing, music, and archery, all 
which manifestly refer to the sun. Light dispelling dark- 
ness, is a strong emblem of truth dissipating ignorance ; 
- — the warmth of the sun conduces greatly to health ; and 
there can be no juster symbol of the planetary harmony, 
than Apollo's lyre, the seven strings of which are said to 
represent the seven planets. As his darts are reported to 
have destroyed the monster Python, so his rays dry up the 
noxious moisture which is pernicious to vegetation and 
fertility. 

Apollo was very differently represented in different 
countries and times, according to the character he assum- 
ed. In general he is described as a beardless youth, with 
long flowing hair floating as it were in the wind, comely 
and graceful, crowned with laurel, his garments and sandals 
shining with gold. In one hand he holds a bow and 
arrows, in the other a lyre; sometimes a shield and the 
graces. At other times he is invested in a long robe, and 
carries a lyre and a cup of nectar, the symbol of his di- 
vinity. 

He has a threefold authority : in heaven, he is the 

7 * 



74 MYTHOLOGY. 

Sun ; and by the lyre intimates, that he is the source 
of harmony : upon earth he is called Liber Pater, and 
carries a shield to show he is the protector of mankind, 
and their preserver in health and safety. In the infernal 
regions he is styled Apollo, and his arrows show his au- 
thority ; whosoever is stricken with them being immedi- 
ately sent thither. As the Sun, Apollo was represented 
in a chariot, drawn by the four horses, Edus, JEtlion, 
Phlegon, and Pyroeis. 

Considered in his poetical character, he is called indif- 
ferently either Vates or Lyristcs ; music and poetry, in 
the earliest ages of the world, having made but one and the 
same profession. 

MERCURY was the offspring of Jupiter and Maia, the 
daughter of Atlas. Cyllene, in Arcadia, is said to have 
been the scene of his birth and education, and a magnifi- 
cent temple was erected to him there. 

That adroitness which formed the most distinguishing 
trait in his character, began very early to render him con- 
spicuous. Born in the morning, he fabricated a lyre, and 
played on it by noon ; and, before night, filched from A- 
pollo his cattle. The god of light demanded instant res- 
titution, and was lavish of menaces, the better to insure 
it. But his threats were of no avail, for it was soon found 
that the same thief had disarmed him of his quiver and 
bow. Being taken up into his arms by Vulcan, he rob- 
bed him of his tools, and whilst Venus caressed him for 
his superiority to Cupid in wrestling, he slipped off her 
cestus unperceived. From Jupiter he purloined his scep- 
tre, and would have made as free with his thunder-bolt, 
had it not proved too hot for his fingers. 

From being usually employed on Jupiter's errands, he 
was styled the messenger of the gods. The Greeks and 
Romans considered him as presiding over roads and 
cross-ways, in which they often erected busts of him. He 
was esteemed the god of orators and eloquence, the author 
of letters and oratory. The caduccus, or rod, which he 
constantly carried, was supposed to be possessed of an 
inherent charm that could subdue the power of enmity : 
an effect which he discovered by throwing it to separate 
two serpents found by him fighting on Mount Cytheron : 
each quitted his adversary, and twined himself on the rod, 
which Mercury, from that time, bore as the symbol of 
concord. His musical skill was great, for to him is as- 



MYTHOLOGY. 75 

cribed the discovery of the three tones, treble, bass, and 
tenor. 

It was part of his function to attend on the dying, de- 
tach their souls from their bodies, and conduct them to 
the infernal regions. In conjunction with Hercules, he 
patronized wrestling and the gymnastic exercises; to show 
that address upon these occasions should always be united 
with force. The invention of the art of thieving was 
attributed to him, and the ancients used to paint him 
on their doors, that he, as god of thieves, might prevent 
the intrusion of others. For this reason he was much 
adored by shepherds, who imagined he could either preserve 
their own flocks from thieves, or else help to compensate 
their losses, by dexterously stealing from their neighbors. 

At Rome on the fifteenth of May, the month so named 
from his mother, a festival was celebrated to his honor, by 
merchants, traders, &-c. in which they sacrificed a sow, 
sprinkled themselves, and the goods they intended for 
sale, with water from his fountain, and prayed that he 
would both blot out all the frauds and perjuries they had 
already committed, and enable them to impose again on 
their buyers. 

Mercury is usually described as a beardless young man, 
of a fair complexion, with yellow hair, quick eyes, and a 
cheerful countenance, having wings annexed to his hat 
and sandals, which were distinguished by the names of 
petasus and talaria: the cdduceus, in his hand, is winged 
likewise, and bound round with two serpents : his face is 
sometimes exhibited half black, on account of his inter- 
course with the infernal deities : he has often a purse in 
his hand, and a goat or cock, or both, by his side. 

The epithets applied to Mercury by the ancients were 
Evccyaviog, the presider over combats ; ^rgotpcaog, the guar- 
dian of doors ; 'e^ttoA&To?, the merchant ; 'E^tovvios benefi- 
cial to mortaits ; A'oA7o$ y subtle ; 'Hyg^ov/o?, the guide, or 
conductor. 

As to his origin, it must be looked for amongst the Phoe- 
nicians. The bag of money which he held signified the 
gain of merchandise ; the wings annexed to his head and 
his feet were emblematic of their extensive commerce and 
navigation ; the caduceus, with which he was said to con- 
duct the spirit of the deceased to Hades, pointing out the 
immortality of the soul, a state of rewards and punishments 
after death, and a resuscitation of the body : it is described 



76 MYTHOLOGY, 

as producing three leaves together, whence it was called by 
Homer, the golden three-leaved wand. 

BACCHUS was the son of Jupiter, by Semele, daughter 
of Cadmus, king of Thebes, in which city he is said to have 
been born. He was the god of good-cheer, wine, and 
hilarity ; and of him, as such, the poets have not been 
sparing in their praises : on all occasions of mirth and 
jollity, they constantly invoked his presence, and as con- 
stantly thanked him for the blessings he bestowed. To him 
they ascribed the forgetfulness of cares, and the delights of 
social converse. 

He is described as a youth of a plump figure, and na- 
ked, with a ruddy face, and an effeminate air ; he is 
crowned with ivy and vine leaves, and bears in his hand 
a thyrsus, or javelin with an iron head, encircled with 
ivy and vine leaves : his chariot is sometimes drawn by 
lions, at others by tigers, leopards, or panthers ; and sur- 
rounded by a band of Satyrs, Bacchse, and Nymphs, in 
frantic postures ; whilst old Silenus, his preceptor, follows 
on an ass, which crouches with the weight of his bur- 
den. 

The women who accompained him as his priestesses, 
were called Msenades, from their madness ; Thyades, from 
their impetuosity ; Bacchse, from their intemperate deprav- 
ity ; and Mimallones, or Mimallonides, from their mimick- 
ing their leaders. 

The victims agreeable to him were the goat and the 
swine ; because these animals are destructive to the vine. 
Among the Egyptians they sacrificed a swine to him be- 
fore their doors ; and the dragon, and the pye on account 
of its chattering : the trees and plants used in his garlands 
were the fir, the oak, ivy, the fig, and vine ; as also the 
daffodil, or narcissus. Bacchus had many temples erected 
to him by the Greeks and the Romans. 

Whoever attentively reads Horace's inimitable ode to 
this god, will see that Bacchus meant no more than the 
improvement of the world by tillage, and the culture of the 
vine. 

MARS was the son of Jupiter and Juno, or of Jupiter 
and Erys. He was held in high veneration among the 
Romans, both on account of his being the father of 
Romulus, their founder, and because of their own genius, 
which always inclined them to war. Numa, though oth- 
erwise a pacific prince, having, during a great pestilence, 



MYTHOLOGY. 77 

implored the favor of the gods, received a small brass 
buckler, called ancile from heaven, which the nymph 
Egeria advised him to keep with the utmost care, as the 
fate of the people and empire depended upon it. To se- 
cure so valuable a pledge, Numa caused eleven others of 
the same form to be made, and intrusted the preservation 
of these to an order of priests, which he constituted for 
the purpose, called Salii, or priests of Mars, in whose 
temple the twelve ancilia were deposited. 

The fiercest and most ravenous creatures were conse- 
crated to Mars : the horse, for his vigor ; the wolf, for his 
rapacity and quickness of sight ; the dog, for his vigilance ; 
and he delighted in the pye, the cock, and the vulture. He 
was the reputed enemy of Minerva, the goddess of wisdom 
and arts, because in time of war they are trampled on, 
without respect, as well as learning and justice. 

Ancient monuments represent this deity as of unusual 
stature, armed with a helmet, shield, and spear, sometimes 
naked, sometimes in a military habit ; sometimes with a 
beard, and sometimes without. He is often described 
riding in a chariot, drawn by furious horses, completely 
armed, and extending his spear with one hand, while, 
with the other, he grasps a sword imbued with blood. 
Sometimes Bellona, the goddess of war, (whether she be 
his sister, wife or daughter, is uncertain,) is represented 
as driving his chariot, and inciting the horses with a bloody 
whip. Sometimes Discord is exhibited as preceding his 
chariot, while Clamor, Fear, Terror, with Fame, full of 
eyes, ears, and tongues, appear in his train. 



CHAPTER II. 

Celestial Goddesses. 

JUNO, daughter of Saturn and Rhea, was sister and 
wife of Jupiter. Though the poets agree that she came 
into the world at the same birth with her husband, yet 
they differ as to the place. Some fix her nativity at 
Argos, others at Samos, near the river Imbrasus. The 
latter opinion is, however, the more generally received. 
Samos, was highly honored, and received the name of 
Parthenia, from the consideration that so eminent a vir* 



78 MYTHOLOGY. 

gin as Juno was educated and dwelt there till her mar- 
riage. 

As queen of heaven, Juno was conspicuous for her 
state. Her usual attendants were Terror, Boldness — Cas- 
tor and Pollux, accompanied by fourteen nymphs ; but 
her most inseparable adherent was Iris, who was always 
ready to be employed in her most important affairs : she 
acted as messenger to Juno, like Mercury to Jupiter. 
When Juno appeared as the majesty of heaven, with her 
sceptre and diadem beset with lilies and roses, her chariot 
was drawn by peacocks, birds sacred to her ; for which 
reason, in her temple at Eubcea, the emperor Adrian made 
her a most magnificent offering of a golden crown, a pur- 
ple mantle, with an embroidery of silver, describing the 
marriage of Hercules and Hebe, and a large peacock, whose 
body was of gold, and his train of most valuable jewels. 
There never was a wife more jealous than Juno ; and few 
who have had so much reason : on which account we find 
from Homer that the most absolute exertions of Jupiter 
were barely sufficient to preserve his authority. 

There was none except Apollo whose worship was more 
solemn or extensive. The history of the prodigies she had 
wrought, and of the vengeance she had taken upon persons 
who had vied with, or slighted her, had so inspired the peo- 
ple with awe, that, when supposed to be angry, no means 
were omitted to mitigate her anger ; and had Paris adjudg- 
ed to her the prize of Beauty, the fate of Troy might have 
been suspended. In resentment of this judgment, and to 
wreak her vengeance on Paris, the house of Priam, and 
the Trojan race, she appears in the Iliad to be fully em- 
ployed. Minerva is commissioned by her to hinder the 
Greeks from retreating ; she quarrels with Jupiter ; she 
goes to battle; cajoles Jupiter with the cestus of Venus; 
carries the orders of Jupiter to Apollo and Iris ; consults 
the gods on the conflict between JEneas and Achilles ; 
sends Vulcan to oppose Xanthus ; overcomes Diana, &c. 

She is generally pictured like a matron, with a grave and 
majestic air, sometimes with a sceptre in her hand, and a 
veil on her head : she is represented also with a spear in 
her hand, and sometimes with a patera, as if she were 
about to sacrifice : on some medals she has a peacock at 
her feet, and sometimes holds the Palladium. Homer rep- 
resents her in a chariot adorned with gems, having wheels 
of ebony, nails of silver, and horses with reins of gold , 



MYTHOLOGY. 79 

though more commonly her chariot is drawn by peacocks, 
her favourite birds. The most obvious and striking charac- 
ter of Juno, and that which we are apt to imbibe the most 
early of any, from the writings of Homer and Virgil, is 
that of an imperious and haughty wife. In both of these 
poets we find her much oftener scolding at Jupiter than 
caressing him, and in the tenth ^Eneid in particular, even 
in the council of the gods, we have a remarkable instance 
of this. 

If, in searching out the meaning of this fable, we regard 
the account of Varro, we shall find, that by Juno was sig- 
nified the earth ; by Jupiter, the heavens ; but if we believe 
the Stoics, by Juno is meant the air and its properties, and 
by Jupiter the ether : hence Homer supposes she was nour- 
ished by Oceanus and Tethys: that is, by the sea; and 
agreeable to this mythology, the poet makes her shout aloud 
in the army of the Greeks, the air being the cause of the 
sound. 

MINERVA, or Pallas, was one of the most distinguished 
of the heathen deities, as being the goddess of wisdom and 
science. She is supposed to have sprung, fully grown and 
completely armed, from the head of Jupiter. 

One of the most remarkable of her adventures, was her 
contest with Neptune. When Cecrops founded Athens, it 
was agreed that whoever of these two deities could produce 
the most beneficial gift to mankind, should have the honor 
of giving their name to the city. Neptune, with a stroke 
of his trident, formed a horse, but Minerva causing an ol- 
ive-tree to spring from the ground, obtained from the god 
the prize. She was the goddess of war, wisdom, and arts, 
such as spinning, weaving, music, and especially of the 
pipe. In a word, she was patroness of all those sciences 
which render men useful to society and themselves, and en- 
title them to the esteem of posterity. 

She is described by the poets, and represented by the 
sculptors and painters in a standing attitude, completely 
armed, with a composed but smiling countenance, bearing 
a golden breast-plate, a spear in her right hand, and the 
aegis in her left, having on it the head of Medusa, entwined 
with snakes. Her helmet was usually encompassed with 
olives, to denote that peace is the end of war, or rather 
because that tree was sacred to her : at her feet is gen- 
erally placed the owl or the cock, the former being the 
emblem of wisdom, and the latter of war. 



80 MYTHOLOGY. 

Minerva represents wisdom, that is, skilful knowledge 
joined with discreet practice, and comprehends the un- 
derstanding of the noblest arts, the best accomplishments 
of the mind, together with all the virtues, but more espe- 
cially that of chastity. She is said to be born of Jupiter's 
brain, because the ingenuity of man did not invent the 
useful arts and sciences, which, on the contrary, were de- 
rived from the fountain of all wisdom. She was born 
armed, because the human soul, fortified with wisdom and 
virtue, is invincible ; in danger, intrepid ; under crosses, 
unbroken ; in calamities, impregnable. 

The owl, a bird seeing in the dark, was sacred to Mi- 
nerva; this is symbolical of a wise man, who, scattering 
and dispelling the clouds of error, is clear-sighted where 
others are blind. 

VENUS was one of the most celebrated deities of the 
ancients. She was the goddess of beauty, the mother of 
love, and the queen of laughter. She is said to have 
sprung from the froth of the sea, near the island Cy- 
prus, after the mutilated part of the body of Uranus had 
been thrown there by Saturn. Hence she obtained the 
name of Aphrodite, from 'A^og, froth. As soon as Venus 
was born, she is said to have been laid in a beautiful couch 
or shell, embellished with pearls, and by the assistance 
of Zephyrus wafted first to Cytherae, an island in the 
iEgsean, and thence to Cyprus ; where she arrived in the 
month of April. Here, immediately on her landing, flow- 
ers sprung beneath her feet, the Horse or Seasons awaited 
her arrival, and having braided her hair with fillets of gold, 
she was thence wafted to heaven. As she was born laugh- 
ing, an emanation of pleasure beamed from her counte- 
nance, and her charms were so attractive, in the assembly 
of the gods, that most of them desired to obtain her in 
marriage. Vulcan, however, the most deformed of the 
celestials, became the successful competitor. 

One of the most remarkable adventures of this goddess 
was her contest with Juno and Minerva for the superiority 
of beauty. At the marriage of Peleus and Thetis, the 
goddess Discordia, resenting her not being invited, threw 
a golden apple among the company, with this inscription, 
Let the fairest take it. The competitors for this prize 
were Juno, Venus, and Minerva. Jupiter referred them 
to Paris, who then led a shepherd's life on Mount Ida. 
Before him the goddesses appeared. Juno offered him 



MYTHOLOGY. 81 

empire or power, Minerva wisdom, and Venus promised 
him the possession of the most beautiful woman in the 
world. Fatally for himself and family, the shepherd, more 
susceptible of love than of ambition or virtue, decided the 
contest in favor of Venus. 

The sacrifices usually offered to Venus, were white 
goats and swine, with libations of wine, milk and honey. 
The victims were crowned with flowers, or wreaths of 
myrtle, the rose and myrtle being sacred to Venus. The 
birds sacred to her were the swan, the dove, and the 
sparrow. 

It were endless to enumerate the variety of attitudes in 
which Venus is represented on antique gems and medals ; 
sometimes she is clothed in purple, glittering with dia- 
monds, her head crowned with myrtle intermixed with 
roses, and drawn in her car of ivory by swans, doves, or 
sparrows : at other times she is represented standing with 
the Graces attending her, and in all positions Cupid is her 
companion. In general she has one of the prettiest, as 
Minerva has sometimes one of the handsomest faces that 
can be conceived. Her look, as she is represented by the 
ancient artists and poets, has all the enchanting airs and 
graces that they could give it. 

LATONA. This goddess was daughter of Caeus the 
Titan and Phcebe, or, according to Homer, of Saturn. As 
she grew up extremely beautiful, Jupiter fell in love with 
her ; but Juno, discovering their intercourse, not only ex- 
pelled her from heaven, but commanded the serpent Python 
to follow and destroy both her and her children. The 
earth also was caused by the jealous goddess to swear that 
she would afford her no place in which to bring forth. It 
happened, however, at this period, that the island Delos, 
which had been broken from Sicily, lay under water, and 
not having taken the oath, was commanded by Neptune 
to rise in the ^Egean sea, and afford her an asylum. La- 
tona, being changed by Jupiter into a quail, fled thither, 
and from this circumstance occasioned it to be called Or- 
tygia, from the name in Greek of that bird. She here 
gave birth to Apollo and Diana. Niobe, daughter of Tan- 
talus, and wife of Amphlon, king of Thebes, experienced 
the resentment of Latona, whose children Apollo and 
Diana, at her instigation, destroyed. Her beauty became 
fatal to Tityus, the giant, who was put to death also by the 
same divinities. After having been long persecuted by 
8 



82 MYTHOLOGY. 

Juno, she became a powerful deity, beheld her children 
exalted to divine honors, and received adoration where 
they were adored. 

In explanation of the fable, it may be observed, that as 
Jupiter is taken for the maker of all things, so Latona is 
physically understood to be the matter out of which all 
things were made, which, according to Plato, is called A^re* 
or Latona, from M$u* to lie hid or concealed, because all 
things originally lay hid in darkness till the production of 
tight, or birth of Apollo. 

AURORA, goddess of the morning, was the youngest 
daughter of Hyperion and Theia, or, according to some, 
of Titan and Terra. Orpheus calls her the harbinger of 
Titan, for she is the personification of that light which 
precedes the appearance of the sun. The poets describe 
this goddess as rising out of the ocean in a saffron robe, 
seated in a flame-colored car, drawn by two or four horses, 
expanding with her rosy fingers the gates of light, and 
scattering the pearly dew. Virgil represents her horses 
as of flame color, and varies their number from two to four, 
according as she rises slower or faster. 

She is said to have been daughter of Titan and the 
earth, because the light of the morning seems to rise out 
of the earth, and to proceed from the sun, which imme- 
diately follows it. She is styled mother of the four winds, 
because, after a calm in the night, the winds rise in the 
morning, as attendant upon the sun, by whose heat and 
light they are begotten. There is no other goddess of 
whom we have so many beautiful descriptions in the poets. 



CHAPTER III. 

Terrestrial Gods* 

SATURN was the son of Ccelus and Tiuea or Terra, 
and married his sister Vesta. She, with her other sisters, 
persuaded their mother to join them in a plot, to exclude 
Titan, their elder brother, from his birthright, and laise 
Saturn to his father's throne. Their design so far suc- 
ceeded, that Titan was obliged to resign his claim, though 
on condition, that Saturn brought up no male children, 
and thus the succession might revert to the Titans again. 



MYTHOLOGY. S3 

Saturn, it is said, observed this covenant so faithfully, 
that he devoured, as soon as they were born, his legitimate 
sons. His punctuality, however, in this respect, was at 
last frustrated by the artifice of Vesta, who, being deliver- 
ed of twins. Jupiter and Juno, presented the latter to her 
husband, and concealing the former, sent him to be nursed 
on Mount Ida in Crete, committing the care of him to the 
Curetes and Corybantes. 

The reign of Saturn was so mild and happy, that the 
poets have given it the name of the golden age. The 
people, who before wandered about like beasts, were then 
reduced to civil society ; laws were enacted, and the 
art of tilling and sowing the ground introduced ; whence 
Varro tells us, that Saturn had his name a satu, from sow- 
ing. 

He was usually represented as an old man, bare-headed 
and bald, with all the marks of infirmity in his eyes, coun- 
tenance, and figure. In his right hand they sometimes 
placed a sickle or scythe ; at others, a key, and a circum- 
flexed serpent biting its tail, in his left. He sometimes 
was pictured with six wings, and feet of wool, to show how 
insensibly and swiftly time passes. The scythe denoted 
his cutting down and subverting all things, and the serpent 
the revolution of the year, quod in sese volvitur annus. 

JANUS was a pagan deity, particularly of the ancient 
Romans. He was esteemed the wisest sovereign of his 
time, and because he was supposed to know what was past, 
and what was to come, they feigned that he had two faces, 
whence the Latins gave him the epithets of Biceps, Bifrons, 
and Biformis. 

He is introduced by Ovid as describing his origin, office 
and form : he was the ancient Chaos, or confused mass of 
matter before the formation of the world, the reduction of 
which into order and regularity, gave him his divinity. Thus 
deified, he had the power of opening and shutting every 
thing in the universe : he was arbiter of peace and war, 
and keeper of the door of heaven. He was the god who 
presided over the beginning of all undertakings; the first 
libations of wine and wheat were offered to him, and the 
preface of all prayers directed to him. The first month of 
the year took its denomination from Janus. 

It is certain that Janus early obtained divine honors 
among the Romans. Numa ordained that his temple 
should be shut in time of peace, and opened in time of 



84 MYTHOLOGY. 

war, from which ceremony Janus was called Clusius and 
Patulcius. 

The peculiar offerings to Janus were cakes of new meal 
and salt, with new wine and frankincense. In the feasts 
instituted by Numa, the sacrifice was a ram, and the so- 
lemnities were performed by men, in the manner of exer- 
cises and combats. Then all artificers and tradesmen be- 
gan their works, and the Roman consuls for the new year 
solemnly entered on their office : all quarrels were laid 
aside, mutual presents were made, and the day concluded 
with joy and festivity. Janus was seated in the centre of 
twelve altars, in allusion to the twelve months of the year, 
and had on his hands fingers to the amount of the days in 
the year. Sometimes his image had four faces, either in 
regard to the four seasons of the year, or to the four quar- 
ters of the world : he held in one hand a key, and in the 
other a sceptre ; the former may denote his opening, as it 
were, and shutting the world, by the admission and exclu- 
sion of light ; and the latter his dominion over it. 

VULCAN was the offspring of Jupiter and Juno. He 
was so remarkably deformed that Jupiter threw him down 
from heaven to the isle of Lemnos. In this fall he broke 
his leg, as he also would have broken his neck, had he not 
been caught by the Lemnians. It is added that he was a 
day in falling from heaven to earth. Some report that Ju- 
no herself, disgusted at his deformity, hurled down Vul- 
can into the sea, where he was nursed by Thetis and her 
nymphs, whilst others contend that he fell upon land, and 
was brought up by apes. It is probable that Juno had 
some hand in his disgrace, since Vulcan afterwards, in re- ' 
sentment of the injury, presented his mother with a golden 
chair, which was so contrived by springs "unseen, that be- 
ing seated in it she was unable to rise, till the inventor was 
prevailed upon to grant her deliverance. 

The first abode of Vulcan on earth was in the isle of 
Lemnos. There he set up his forges, and taught men the 
malleability and polishing of metals. Thence he removed 
to the Liparean islands, near Sicily, where, with the assist- 
ance of the Cyclops, he made Jupiter fresh thunderbolts as 
the old ones decayed. He also wrought an helmet for Plu- 
to, which rendered him invisible ; a trident for Neptune,. 
which shook both land and sea; and a dog of brass for Ju- 
piter, which he animated so as to perform the functions of 
nature. At the request of Thetis he fabricated the divine 



MYTHOLOGY. 85 

armor of Achilles, whose shield is so beautifully described 
by Homer ; as also the invincible armor of ./Eneas, at the 
entreaty of Venus. However disagreeable the person of 
Vulcan might be, he was susceptible notwithstanding of 
love. His first passion was for Minerva, having Jupiter's 
consent to address her ; but his courtship, in this instance, 
failed of success, not only on account of his person, but 
also because the goddess had vowed perpetual virginity. 
He afterwards became the husband of Venus. 

He was reckoned among the gods presiding over mar- 
riage, from the torches lighted by him to grace that so- 
lemnity. It was the custom in several nations, after 
gaining a victory, to pile the arms of the enemy in a heap 
on the field of battle, and make a sacrifice of them to 
Vulcan. As to his worship, Vulcan had an altar in com- 
mon with Prometheus, who first invented fire, as did 
Vulcan the use of it, in making arms and utensils. His 
principal temple was in a consecrated grove at the foot 
of mount JEtna, in which was a fire continually burning. 
This temple was guarded by dogs, which had the dis- 
cernment to distinguish his votaries by tearing the vicious, 
and fawning upon the virtuous. 

He was highly honored at Rome. Romulus built 
him a temple without the walls of the city, the augurs be- 
ing of opinion that the god of fire ought not to be admit- 
ted within. But the highest mark of respect paid him by 
the Romans was, that those assemblies were kept in his 
temple where the most important concerns of the repub- 
lic were debated, the Romans thinking they could invoke 
nothing more sacred to confirm their treaties and decis- 
ions, than the avenging fire of which that god was the 
symbol. 

This deity, as the god of fire, was represented differ- 
ently in different nations : the Egyptians depicted him 
proceeding from an egg, placed in the mouth of Jupiter, 
to denote the radical or natural heat diffused through all 
created beings. In ancient gems and medals he is figured 
as a lame, deformed and squalid man, with a beard, and 
hair neglected; half naked ; his habit reaching down to 
his knee only, and having a round peaked cap on his 
head, a hammer in his right hand, and a smith's tongs in 
his left, working at the anvil, and usually attended by the 
Cyclops, or by some of the gods or goddesses for whom he 
is employed. 

8* 



86 MYTHOLOGY. 

The poets described him as blackened and hardened 
from the forge, with a face red and fiery whilst at his work, 
and tired and heated after it. He is almost always the 
subject either of pity or ridicule. In short, the great 
celestial deities seem to have admitted Vulcan among them 
as great men used to keep buffoons at their tables, to 
make them laugh, and to be the butt of the whole com- 
pany. 

If we wish to come at the probable meaning of this 
fable, we must have recourse to Egyptian antiquities. 
The Horus of the Egyptians was the most mutable 
figure on earth, for he assumed shapes suitable to all 
seasons, and to all ranks. To direct the husbandman 
he wore a rural dress ; by a change of attributes he be- 
came the instructer of smiths and other artificers, whose 
instruments he appeared adorned with. This Horus of 
the smiths had a short or lame leg, to signify that agri- 
culture or husbandry will halt without the assistance of 
the handicraft or mechanic arts. In this apparatus he 
was called Mulciber, (from Mulct, to direct and manage, 
and ber or beer, a cave or mine, comes Mulciber, the king 
of the mines or forges ;) he was called also Hephaistos, 
(from Aph, father, and Esto,fre, comes Ephaisto, or He- 
phaiston, the father of fire ; and from Walt, to ivork, and 
Canan, to hasten, comes Wolcon, Vulcan, or toork furnish- 
ed; ) all which names the Greeks and Romans adopted 
with the figure, and, as usual, converted from a symbol to a 
god. 

iEOLUS, god of the winds, is said to have been the 
son of Jupiter by A casta or Sigesia, daughter of Hippo- 
tas. His residence was, according to most authors, at 
Rhegium in Italy ; but wherever it was, he is represented 
as holding the winds, enchained in a vast cave, to pre- 
vent their committing any more such devastations as they 
had before occasioned ; for, to their violence was im- 
puted not only the disjunction of Sicily from Italy, but 
also the separation of Europe from Africa, by which a 
passage was opened for the ocean to form the Mediterra- 
nean sea. According to some, the ^Eolian, or Lipari 
islands were uninhabited till Liparus, son of Auson, set- 
tled a colony there, and gave one of them his name. Mo- 
lus married his daughter Cyane, peopled the rest and suc- 
ceeded him on the throne. He was a generous and good 
prince, who hospitably entertained Ulysses, and as a proof 



MYTHOLOGY. 87 

of his kindness, bestowed on him several skins, in which 
he had enclosed the winds. The companions of Ulysses, 
unable to restrain their curiosity, having opened the skins, 
the winds in consequence were set free, and occasioned 
the wildest uproar; insomuch that Ulysses lost all his 
vessels, and was himself alone saved by a plank. It may 
not be improper to remark, that over the rougher winds 
the poets have placed iEolus ; over the milder, Juno ; and 
the rain, thunder and lightning they have committed to 
Jupiter himself. 

MOMUS, son of Somnus and Nox, was the god of 
pleasantry and wit, or rather the jester of the celestial as- 
sembly ; for, like other monarchs, it was but reasonable 
that Jupiter too should have his fool. We have an instance 
of Momus's fantastic humor in the contest between Nep- 
tune, Minerva, and Vulcan, for skill. The first had made 
a bull, the second a house, and the third a man. Momus 
found fault with them all. He disliked the bull because 
his horns were not placed before his eyes, that he might 
give a surer blow : he condemned Minerva ; s house because 
it was immovable, and could not therefore be taken away 
if placed in a bad neighborhood ; and in regard to Vulcan's 
man, he said he ought to have made a window in his 
breast, by which his heart might be seen, and his secrets 
discovered. 



CHAPTER IV. 

Terrestrial Goddesses. 

CYBELE, or VESTA the elder. It is highly necessary, 
in tracing the genealogy of the heathen deities, to distin- 
guish between this goddess and Vesta the younger, her 
daughter, because the poets have been faulty in confound- 
ing them, and ascribing the attributes and actions of the 
one to the other. The elder Vesta, or Cybele, was daugh- 
ter of Ccelus and Terra, and wife of her brother Saturn, 
to whom she bore a numerous offspring. She had a vari- 
ety of names besides that ol Cybele, under which she is 
most generally known, and which she obtained from 
Mount Cybelus, in Phrygia, where saenhces to her were 
first instituted. Her sacrifices and festivals, like those of 



88 MYTHOLOGY. 

Bacchus, were celebrated with a confused noise of tim- 
brels, pipes, and cymbals; the sacrilicants howling as if 
mad, and profaning both the temple of the goddess, and 
the ears of their hearers with the most obscene language 
and abominable gestures. 

Under the character of Vesta, she is generally repre- 
sented upon ancient coins in a sitting posture, with a 
lighted torch in one hand, and a sphere or drum in the 
other. As Cybele, she makes a more magnificent appear- 
ance, being seated in a lofty chariot drawn by lions, 
crowned with towers, and bearing in her hand a key. Be- 
ing goddess, not of cities only, but of all things which the 
earth sustains, she was crowned with turrets, whilst the 
key implies not only her custody of cities, but also that 
in winter the earth locks those treasures up, which she 
brings forth and dispenses in summer : she rides in a 
chariot, because (fancifully) the earth hangs suspended 
in the air, balanced and poised by its own weight ; and 
that the chariot is supported by wheels, because the earth 
is a voluble body and turns round. Her being drawn by 
lions, may imply that nothing is too fierce and intractable 
for a motherly piety and tenderness to tame and subdue. 
Her garments are painted with divers colors, but chiefly 
green, and figured with the images of several creatures, 
because such a dress is suitable to the variegated and more 
prevalent appearance of the earth. 

VESTA was the daughter of Vesta the elder, by Saturn, 
and sister of Ceres, Juno, Pluto, Neptune and Jupiter. 
She was so fond of a single life, that when her brother 
Jupiter ascended the throne, and offered to grant whatever 
she asked, her only desires were the preservation of her 
virginity, and the first oblation in all sacrifices. Numa 
Pompilius, the great founder of religion among the Ro- 
mans, is said first to have restored the ancient rites and 
worship of this goddess, to whom he erected a circular 
temple, which in succeeding ages was not only much em- 
bellished, but also, as the earth was supposed to retain a 
constant fire within, a perpetual fire was kept up in the 
temple of Vesta, the care of which was intrusted to a 
select number of young females appointed from the first 
families in Rome, and called Vestal virgins. 

As this Vesta was the goddess of fire, the Romans had 
no images of her in her temple; the reason for which, 
assigned by Ovid, is that fire has no representative, as no 



MYTHOLOGY. 89 

bodies are produced from it : yet as Vesta was the guar- 
dian of houses or hearths, her image was usually placed in 
the porch or entry, and daily sacrifices were offered up to 
her. It is certain nothing could be a stronger or more 
lively symbol of the supreme being than fire ; accordingly 
we find this emblem in early use throughout the east. 
The Romans looked upon Vesta as one of the tutelar 
deities of their empire ; and they so far made the safe- 
ty and fate of Rome depend on the preservation of the 
sacred fire in the temple of Vesta, that they thought the 
extinction of it foreboded the most terrible misfortune. 

CERES was daughter of Saturn and Ops, or Vesta. 
Sicily, Attica, Crete, and Egypt, claim the honor of her 
birth, each country producing the ground of its claims, 
though general suffrage favors the first. In her youth, 
being extremely beautiful, Jupiter fell in love with her, 
and by him she had Perephata, called afterwards Proser- 
pine. For some time she took up her residence in Cor- 
cyra, so called in later times, from a daughter of Asopus, 
there buried, but anciently Drepanum, from the sickle 
used by the goddess in reaping, which had been presented 
her by Vulcan. Thence she removed to Sicily, where the 
violence of Pluto deprived her of Proserpine. Discon- 
solate at her loss, she importuned Jupiter for redress ; but 
obtaining little satisfaction, she lighted torches at the 
volcano of Mount yEtna, and mounting her car, drawn by 
winged dragons, set out in search of her beloved daugh- 
ter. This transaction the Sicilians annually commemo- 
rated by running about in the night with lighted torches 
and loud exclamations. 

It is disputed, by several nations, who first informed 
Ceres where her daughter was, and thence acquired the 
reward, which was the art of sowing corn. Some ascribe 
the intelligence to Triptolemus, and his brother Eubuleus ; 
but the generality of writers agree in conferring the honor 
on the nymph Arethusa, daughter of Nereus and Doris, and 
companion of Diana, who, flying from the pursuit of the 
river Alpheus, saw Proserpine in the infernal regions. 

It must be owned that Ceres was not undeserving the 
highest titles bestowed upon her, being considered as the 
deity who had blessed men with the art of cultivating the 
earth, having not only taught them to plough and sow, but 
also to reap, harvest, and thresh out their grain ; to make 
flour and bread , and fix limits or boundaries to ascertain 



90 MYTHOLOGY. 

their possessions. The garlands used in her sacrifices 

were of myrtle, or rape-weed : but tlowers were prohib- 
ited, Proserpine being carried oft* as she gathered then.. 
The poppy alone was Stored to hei\ not only because it 
grows amongst corn, but because, in her distress, Jupiter 
gave it her to eat. that she might sleep and forget her 
troubles. Cicero mentions an ancient temple dedicated 
to her at Catania, in Sicily in which the orftces were 
performed by matrons and virgins only, no man being 
admitted. 

If to explain the fable of Ceres, we have recourse to 
Egypt, it will be found, that the goddess of Sicily and 
Eleusis, or of Rome and Greece, is no other than the 
Egyptian Isis, brought by the Phoenicians into those 
countries. The very name of mystery, from mistor, a reil 
or covering, given to the Eleusinian rites, performed in 
honor of Ceres, shows them to have been of Egyptian 
origin. The Isis, or the emblematical figure exhibited at 
the feast appointed for the commemoration of the state of 
mankind after the flood, bore the name of Ceres, from 
Cents, dissolution or overthrow. She was represented in 
mourning, and with torches, to denote the grief she felt 
for the loss of her favorite daughter Persephone (which 
word, translated, signifies corn lost) and the pains she 
was at to recover her. The poppies with which this Isis 
was crowned, signified the joy men received at their first 
abundant crop, the word which signifies a double crop, 
being also a name for the poppi/. Persephone or Proserpine 
found again, was a lively symbol of the recovery of corn, 
and its cultivation, almost lost in the deluge. Thus, em- 
blems of the most important events which ever happened 
in the world, simple in themselves, became when trans- 
planted to Greece and Rome, sources of fable and 
idolatry. 

Ceres was usually represented of a tall majestic stat- 
ure, fair complexion, languishing eyes, and yellow or 
flaxen hair ; her head crowned with a garland of poppies, 
or ears of corn ; holding in her right hand a bunch of 
the same materials with her garland, and in her left a 
lighted torch. When in a car or chariot, she is drawn 
by lions, or winged dragons. 

MUSJE, the Muses. This celebrated sisterhood is said 
to have been the daughters of Jupiter and Mnemosyne. 
They were believed to have been born on Mount Pierus, 



MYTHOLOGY. 91 

and educated by Eupheme. In general they were con- 
sidered as the tutelar goddesses of sacred festivals and 
banquets, and the patronesses of polite and useful arts. 
They supported virtue in distress, and preserved worthy 
actions from oblivion. Homer calls them superinten- 
dants and correctors of manners. In respect to the sci- 
ences, these sisters had each their separate province ; 
though poetry seemed more immediately under their united 
protection. 

These divinities, formerly called Mosas, were so named 
from a Greek word signifying to inquire; because, by 
inquiring of them, the sciences might be learnt. Others 
say they had their name from their resemblance, because 
there is a similitude, an infinity, and relation, betwixt 
all the sciences, in which they agree together, and are 
united with each other ; for which reason they are often 
painted with their hands joined, dancing in a circle round 
Apollo their leader. 

They were represented crowned with flowers, or 
wreaths of palm, each holding some instrument, or em- 
blem of the science or art over which she presided. They 
were depicted as in the bloom of youth ; and the bird 
sacred to them was the swan, probably because that bird 
was consecrated to their sovereign Apollo. There was a 
fountain of the Muses near Rome, in the meadow where 
Numa used to meet the goddess Egeria ; the care of which 
and of the worship paid to the Muses, was intrusted to the 
Vestal virgins. 

Their names were as follows : Clio, who presided over 
history. Her name is derived from xliioc, glory, or from 
utejwj to celebrate. She is generally represented under 
the form of a young woman crowned with laurel, holding 
in her right hand a trumpet, and in her left a book : others 
describe her with a lute in one hand, and in the other a 
plectrum, or quill. 

Euterpe is distinguished by tihice or pipes whence she 
was called also Tibicina. Some say logic was invented 
by her. It was very common with the musicians of old 
to play on two pipes at once, agreeably to the remarks 
before Terence's plays, and as we often actually find them 
represented in the remains of the artists. It was over this 
species of music that Euterpe presided, as we learn from 
the first ode of Horace. 

Thalia presided over comedy, and whatever was gay, 



98 MYTHOLOGY. 

amiable, and pleasant. She holds a mask in hei right 
hand, ami on medals she is represented leaning against i 
pillar. She was the Muse of comedy, of which they had 
a great mixture on the Roman stage in the earliest ages 
of their poetry, and long after. She is distinguished 

from the other Muses in general by a mask, and from Mel- 
pomene, the tragk Muse, by her shepherd's crook, not to 
speak of her look, which is meaner than that oi Melpo- 
mene, or her dress, which is shorter, anil consequent]) less 
noble, than that of any other oi the Muses. 

Melpomene was so styled from the dignity and excel- 
lence of her song. She presided over epic ami lyric po- 
etry. To her the invention oi' all mournful verses, and, 
particularly, of tragedy, was ascribed; for which reason 
Horace invokes her when he laments the death oi Quin- 
tilius Varus. She is usually represented oi' a sedate 
countenance, and richly habited, with sceptres ami crowns 
in one hand, and in the other a dagger. She has her 
mask on her head, which is sometimes placed so far 
backward that it has been mistaken for a second face. 
Her mask shows that she presided over the stage; and 
she is distinguished from Thalia, or the comic Muse, by 
having more oi' dignity in her look, stature, and dress. 
Melpomene was supposed to preside over all melancholy 
subjects, as well as tragedy : as one would imagine at least 
from Horace's invoking her in one of his odes, and his 
desiring her to crown him with laurel in another. 

Terpsichore; that is, the sprightly. Some attribute her 
name to the pleasure she took in dancing; Others repre- 
sent her as the protectress of music, particularly the flute ; 
and add, that the chorus oi' the ancient drama was her 
province, to which also Logic has been annexed. She is 
further said to be distinguished by the ilutes which she 
holds, as well on medals as on other monuments. 

Erato, presided over elegiac or amorous poetry, and 
dancing, whence she was sometimes called Saltatrix. She 
is represented as young, ami crowned with myrtle and 
roses, having a lyre in her right hand, atid a bow in her left, 
with a little winged Cupid placed by her, armed with his 
bow and arrows. 

Polyhymnia. Her name, which is of Greek origin, 
ami signifies much singing', seems to have been given her 

for the number of her sougs, rather than her faithful- 
ness of memory. To Polyhymnia belonged that bar- 




m 



MYTHOLOGY. 93 

mony of voice and gesture which gives a perfection to 
oratory and poetry. She presided over rhetoric, and is 
represented with a crown of pearls and a white robe, in 
the act of extending her right hand, as if haranguing, and 
holding in her left a scroll, on which the word Suadere is 
written ; sometimes, instead of the scroll, she appears hold- 
ing a caduceus or sceptre. 

Urania, or Ccelestis. She is the Muse who extended her 
care to all divine or celestial subjects, such as the hymns 
in praise of the gods, the motions of the heavenly bodies, 
and whatever regarded philosophy or astronomy. She is 
represented in an azure robe, crowned with stars and sup- 
porting a large globe with both hands : on medals this globe 
stands upon a tripod. 

Calliope, who presides over eloquence and heroic 
poetry ; so called from the ecstatic harmony of her 
voice. The poets, who are supposed to receive their in- 
spirations from the Muses, chiefly invoked Calliope, as 
she presided over the hymns made in honor of the gods. 
She is spoken of by Ovid, as the chief of all the Muses. 
Under the same idea, Horace calls her Regina, and at- 
tributes to her the skill of playing on what instrument she 
pleases. 

ASTRiEA, or ASTREA, goddess of justice, was 
daughter of Astraus, one of the Titans; or according to 
Ovid, of Jupiter and Themis. She descended from heav- 
en in the golden age, and inspired mankind with princi- 
ples of justice and equity, but the world growing corrupt, 
she re-ascended thither, where she became the constellation 
in the Zodiac called Virgo. 

This goddess is represented with a serene countenance, 
her eyes bound or blinded, having a sword in one hand, 
and in the other a pair of balances, equally poised, or rods 
with a bundle of axes, and sitting on a square stone. A- 
mong the Egyptians, she is described with her left hand 
stretched forth and open, but without a head. According 
to the poets, she was conversant on earth during the gold- 
en and silver ages, but in those of brass and iron, was 
forced by the wickedness of mankind to abandon the earth 
and retire to heaven. Virgil hints that she first quitted 
courts and cities, and betook herself to rural retreats be- 
fore she entirely withdrew. 

NEMESIS, daughter of Jupiter and Necessity, or, ac- 
cording to some, of Oceanus and Nox, had the care of 
9 



04 MYTHOLOGY. 

revenging the crimes which human justice left unpunished. 
The word Nemesis is of Greek origin, nor was there any 
Latin word that expressed it, therefore the Latin poets 
usually styled this goddess Rhamnusia, from a famous 
statue of Nemesis at Rhamnus in Attica. She is likewise 
called Adrastea, because Adrastus, king of Argos, first 
raised an altar to her. Nemesis is plainly divine ven- 
geance, or the eternal justice of God, which severely pun- 
ishes the wicked actions of men. She is sometimes 
represented with wings, to denote the celerity with which 
she follows men to observe their actions. 



CHAPTER V. 

Gods of the Woods, 

PAN, the god of shepherds and hunters, leader of the 
nymphs, president of the mountains, patron of a country 
life, and guardian of flocks and herds, was likewise ador- 
ed by fishermen, especially those who lived about the 
promontories washed by the sea. There is scarcely any 
of the gods to whom the poets have given a greater di- 
versity of parents. The most common opinion is, that 
he was the son of Mercury and Penelope. As soon as 
he was born, his father carried him in a goat's skin to 
heaven, where he charmed all the gods with his pipe, so 
that they associated him with Mercury in the office of 
their messenger. After this he was educated on Mount 
Maenalus, in Arcadia, by Sione and the other nymphs, 
who, attracted by his music, followed him as their con- 
ductor. 

Pan, though devoted to the pleasures of rural life, dis- 
tinguished himself by his valor. In the war of the giants 
he entangled Typhon in his nets. Bacchus, in his Indian 
expedition, was accompanied by him with a body of Satyrs, 
who rendered Bacchus great service. When the Gauls 
invaded Greece, and were just going to pillage Delphi, 
Pan struck them with such a sudden consternation by 
night, that they fled without being pursued : hence the 
expression of a Panic fear, for a sudden terror. The 
Romans adopted him among their deities, by the names of 



MYTHOLOGY. 95 

Lupercus and Lycaeus, and built a temple to him at the 
foot of Mount Palatine. 

He is represented with a smiling, ruddy face, and thick 
beard covering his breast, two horns on his head, a star 
on his bosom, legs and thighs hairy, and the nose, feet, 
and tail of a goat. He is clothed in a spotted skin, having 
a shepherd's crook in one hand, and his pipe of unequal 
reeds in the other, and is crowned with pine, that tree 
being sacred to him. 

Pan probably signifies the universal nature, proceeding 
from the divine mind and providence, of which the heav- 
en*, earth, sea, and the eternal fire, are so many members. 
Mythologists are of opinion that his upper parts are like 
a man, because the superior and celestial part of the 
world is beautiful, radiant, and glorious : his horns denote 
the rays of the sun, as they beam upwards, and his long 
beard signifies the same rays, as they have an influence 
upon the earth : the ruddiness of his face resembles the 
splendor of the sky, and the spotted skin which he wears 
is the image of the starry firmament : his lower parts are 
rough, hairy, and deformed, to represent the shrubs, wild 
creatures, trees, and mountains here below : his goat's 
feet signify the solidity of the earth ; and his pipe of seven 
reeds, that celestial harmony which is made by the seven 
planets ; lastly, his sheep-hook denotes that care and prov- 
idence by which he governs the universe. 

SILENUS. As Bacchus was the god of good humor 
and fellowship, so none of the deities appeared with a more 
numerous or splendid retinue, in which Silenus was the 
principal person ; of whose descent, however, we have 
no accounts to be relied on. Some say he was born at 
Malea, a city of Sparta ; others at Nysa in Arabia ; but 
the most probable conjecture is, that he was a prince of 
Caria, noted for his equity and wisdom. But whatever be 
the fate of these different accounts, Silenus is said to 
have been preceptor to Bacchus, and was certainly a very 
suitable one for such a deity, the old man being heartily 
attached to wine. He however distinguished himself 
greatly in the war with the giants, by appearing in the 
conflict on an ass, whose braying threw them into confu- 
sion ; for which reason, or because, when Bacchus en- 
gaged the Indians, their elephants were put to flight by the 
braying of the ass, it was raised to the skies, and there 
made a constellation. 



MYTHOLOGY. 



The historian tells us that Silenus was the first of all 
the kings that reigned at Nysa; that his origin is not 
known, it being beyond the memory of mortals: it is 
likewise said that he was a Phrygian, who lived in the 
reign of Midas, and that the shepherds having caught 
him, by putting wine into the fountain he used to drink of, 
brought him to Midas, who gave him his long ears ; a fable 
intended to intimate that this extraordinary loan signified 
the faculty of receiving universal intelligence. Virgil 
makes Silenus deliver a very serious and excellent dis- 
course concerning the creation of the world, when he was 
scarcely recovered from a fit of drunkenness, which ren- 
ders it probable that the sort of drunkenness with which 
Silenus is charged, had something in it mysterious, and 
approaching to inspiration. 

He is described as a short, corpulent old man, bald- 
headed, with a flat nose, prominent forehead and long ears. 
He is usually exhibited as over-laden with wine, and seated 
on a saddled ass, upon which he supports himself with a 
long staff in the one hand, and in the other carries a 
cantharus or jug, with the handle almost worn out with 
frequent use. 

SYLVANUS. The descent of Sylvanus is extremely 
obscure. Some think him son of Faunus, some say he 
was the same with Faunus, whilst others suppose him 
the same deity with Pan, which opinion Pliny seems to 
adopt when he says that the JEgipans were the same with 
the Sylvans. He was unknown to the Greeks ; but the 
Latins received the worship of him from the Pelasgi, upon 
their migration into Italy, and his worship seems wholly 
to have arisen out of the ancient sacred use of woods and 
groves, it being introduced to inculcate a belief that there 
was no place without the presence of a deity. The Pe- 
lasgi consecrated groves, and appointed solemn festivals, 
in honor of Sylvanus. The hog and milk were the offer- 
ings tendered him. A monument consecrated to this 
deity, by one Laches, gives him the epithet of Littoralis, 
whence it would seem that he was worshipped upon the 
sea-coasts. 

The priests of Sylvanus constituted one of the princi- 
pal colleges of Rome, and were in great reputation, a 
sufficient evidence of the fame of his worship. Many 
writers confound the Sylvani, Fauni, Satyri, and Sileni, 
with Pan, 



MYTHOLOGY. 97 

Some monuments represent him as little of stature, with 
the face of a man, and the legs and feet of a goat, holding 
a branch of cypress in his hand, in token of his regard for 
Cyparissus, who was transformed into that tree. The pine- 
apple, a pruning-knife in his hand, a crown coarsely made, 
and a dog, are the ordinary attributes of the representa- 
tions of this rural deity. He appears sometimes naked, 
sometimes covered with a rustic garb which reaches down 
to his knee. 

Sylvanus, as his name imports, presided over woods, 
and the fruits that grew in them ; agreeable to which, 
(in some figures) he has a lap full of fruit, his prun- 
ing-hook in one hand, and a young cypress tree in the 
other. Virgil mentions the latter as a distinguishing 
attribute of this god : the same poet, on another oc- 
casion, describes him as crowned with wild flowers, 
and mentions his presiding over the cornfields as well as 
the woods. 

SATYRI, or SATYRS, a sort of demi-gods, who with 
the Fauns and Sylvans, presided over groves and forests 
under the direction of Pan. They made part of the 
dramatis persona in the ancient Greek tragedies, which 
gave rise to the species of poetry called satirical. 

There is a story that Euphemus, passing from Caria to 
the extreme parts of the ocean, discovered many desert 
islands, and being forced by tempestuous weather to land 
upon one of them, called Satyrida, he found inhabitants 
covered with yellow hair, having tails not much less than 
horses. We are likewise told, that in the expedition 
which Hanno the Carthaginian made to the parts of Ly- 
bia lying beyond Hercules' pillars, they came to a great 
bay called the Western Horn, in which was an island 
where they could find or see nothing by day-light but 
woods, and yet in the night they observed many fires, and 
heard an incredible and astonishing noise of drums and 
trumpets; whence they concluded that a number of Satyrs 
abode there. 

It is pretended there really were such monsters as the 
pagans deified under the name of Satyrs ; and one of them, 
it is.said, was brought to Sylla, having been surprised in 
his sleep. Sylla ordered him to be interrogated by peo- 
ple of different countries, to know what language he 
spoke ; but the Satyr only answered with cries, not un- 
like those of goats and the neighing of horses. This mon- 
9* 



98 MYTHOLOGY. 

ster had a human body, but the thighs, legs, and feet of 
a goat. To the above stories may be added that of the 
Satyr who passed the Rubicon in presence of Caesar and his 
whole army. 

The Satyrs of the ancients were the ministers and 
attendants of Bacchus. Their form was not the most 
inviting ; for though their countenances were human, they 
had horns on their foreheads, crooked hands, rough and 
hairy bodies, feet and legs like a goat's, and tails whch re- 
sembled those of horses. The shepherds sacrificed to them 
the firstlings of their flocks, but more especially grapes 
and apples ; and they addressed to them songs in their 
forests by which they endeavored to conciliate their favor. 
When Satyrs arrived at an advanced age they were called 
Sileni. 

FAUNI, or FAUNS, a species of demi-gods, inhab- 
iting the forests, called also Sylvani. They were sons of 
Faunus and Fauna, or Fatua, king and queen of the Lat- 
ins, and though accounted demi-gods, were supposed to 
die after a long life. Arnobius, indeed, has shown that 
their father, or chief, lived only one hundred and twenty 
years. The Fauns were Roman deities, unknown to the 
Greeks. The Roman Faunus was the same with the 
Greek Pan ; and as in the poets we find frequent mention 
of Fauns, and Pans, or Panes, in the plural number, most 
probable the Fauns were the same with the Pans, and all 
descended from one progenitor. 

The Romans called them Fauni and Ficarii. The 
denomination Ficarii was not derived from the Latin 
ficus a fig, as some have imagined, but from ficus, fid, a 
sort of fleshy tumor or excrescence growing on the eye- 
lids and other parts of the body, which the Fauns were 
represented as having. They were called Fauni, afando, 
from speaking, because they were wont to speak and con- 
verse with men ; an instance of which is given in the 
voice that was heard from the wood, in the battle between 
the Romans and Etrurians for the restoration of the Tar- 
quins, and which encouraged the Romans to fight. We 
are told that the Fauni were husbandmen, the Satyrs vine- 
dressers, and the Sylvani those who cut down wood in the 
forests. 

They were represented with horns on their heads, point- 
ed ears, and crowned with branches of the pine, which was 



MYTHOLOGY. 99 

a tree sacred to them, whilst their lower extremities resem- 
bled those of a goat. 

Horace makes Faunus the guardian and protector of 
men of wit, and Virgil, a god of oracles and predictions ; 
but this is, perhaps, founded on the etymology of his name, 
for (pvjveiv in Greek, and Fari in Latin, of which it has 
been supposed a derivative, signify to speak; and it was, 
perhaps, for the same reason, they called his wife Fauna, 
that is, Fatidica, prophetess. Faunus is described by 
Ovid with horns on his head, and crowned with the pine 
tree. 

PRIAPUS is said, by some, to have been the son of 
Bacchus and Nais, or as others will have it, of Chione; but 
the generality of authors agree, that he was son of Bac- 
chus and Venus. He was born at Lampsachus, a city of 
Mysia, at the mouth of the Hellespont, but in so deform- 
ed a state, that his mother, through shame, abandoned 
him. On his growing up to maturity, the inhabitants of 
the place banished him their territories, on account of 
his vicious habits ; but being soon after visited with an 
epidemic disease, the Lampsacans consulted the oracle 
of Dodona, and Priapus was in consequence recalled. 
Temples were erected to him as the tutelar deity of vine- 
yards and gardens, to defend them from thieves and from 
birds. 

He is usually represented naked and obscene, with a stern 
countenance, matted hair, crowned with garden herbs, 
and holding a wooden sword, or scythe, whilst his body 
terminates in a shapeless trunk. His figures are gener- 
ally erected in gardens and orchards to serve as scare- 
crows. Priapus held a pruning-hook in his hands, when he 
had hands, for he was sometimes nothing more than a mere 
log of wood, as Martial somewhat humorously calls him. 
Indeed the Roman poets in general seem to have looked 
on him as a ridiculous god, and are all ready enough 
either to despise or abuse him. 

Trimalchio, in his ridiculous feats described by Petro- 
nius, had a figure of this god to be held up during his 
dessert: it was made of paste, and, as Horace observes on 
another occasion, that he owed all his divinity to the car- 
penter, Petronius seems to hint that he was wholly obliged 
for it to the pastry cook in this. Some mythologists make 
the birth of Priapus allude to that radical moisture which 
supports all vegetable productions, and which is produced 



100 MYTHOLOGY. 

by Bacchus and Venus, that is, the solar heat, and the 
fluid whence Venus is said to have sprung. Some affirm 
that he was the same with the Baal of the Phoenicians, men- 
tioned in scripture. 

ARIST.EUS, son of Apollo, by the nymph Cyrene, 
daughter of Hypseus, king of the LapfthsB, was born in 
Lybia, and in that part of it where the city Cyrene was 
built. He received his education from the nymphs, who 
taught him to extract oil from olives, and to make honey, 
cheese, and butter ; all which arts he communicated to 
mankind. Going to Thebes, he there married Autonoe, 
daughter of Cadmus, and, by her, was father to Action, 
who was torn in pieces by his own dogs. At length he 
passed into Thrace, where Bacchus initiated him into the 
mysteries of the Orgia, and taught him many things condu- 
cive to the happiness of life. Having dwelt some time 
near Mount Hemus, he disappeared, and not only the 
barbarous people of that country, but the Greeks likewise 
decreed him divine honors. 

It is remarked by Bayle, that Aristceus found out the 
solstitial rising of Sirius, or the dog-star ; and he adds, it 
is certain that this star had a particular relation to Aris- 
toeus ; for this reason, when the heats of the dog-star laid 
waste the Cyclades, and occasioned there a pestilence, 
Aristaeus was entreated to put a stop to it. He went di- 
rectly into the isle of Cea, and built an altar to Jupiter, 
offered sacrifices to that deity, as well to the malignant 
star, and established an anniversary for it. These produc- 
ed a very good effect, for it was from thence that the 
Etesian winds had their origin, which continue forty days, 
and temper the heat of the summer. On his death, for the 
services he had rendered mankind, he was placed among 
the stars, and is the Aquarius of the Zodiac. 

TERMINUS was a very ancient deity among the Ro- 
mans, whose worship was first instituted by Numa Pom- 
pilius, he having erected in his honor on the Tarpeian 
hill a temple which was open at the top. This deity was 
thought to preside over the stones or land-marks, called 
Termini, which were so highly venerated, that it was 
sacrilege to move them, and the criminal becoming de- 
voted to the gods, it was lawful for any man to kill him. 
The Roman Termini were square stones or posts, much 
resembling our mile-stones, erected to show that no 
force or violence should be used in settling mutual boun- 



MVTHULOGV. 101 

daries ; they were sometimes crowned with a human head, 
but had seldom any inscriptions ; one, however, is men- 
tioned to this effect, " Whosoever shall take away this, or 
shall order it to be taken away, may he die the last of his 
family." 

VEHTUMNUS, the Proteus of the Roman ritual, was 
the god of tradesmen, and, from the power he had of as- 
suming any shape, was believed to preside over the 
thoughts of mankind. His courtship of Pomona makes 
one of the most elegant and entertaining stories in Ovid. 
The Romans esteemed him the god of tradesmen, from 
the turns and changes which traffic effects. There was no 
god had a greater variety of representations than Ver- 
tumnus. He is painted with a garland of flowers on his 
head, a pruning hook in one hand, and ripe fruits in the 
other. Pomona has a pruning hook in her right hand, 
and a branch in her left. Pliny introduces this goddess 
personally, even in his prose, to make her speak in praise 
of the fruits committed to her care. We learn from Ovid 
that this goddess was of that class which they anciently 
called Hamadryads. 

Both these deities were unknown to the Greeks, and 
only honored by the Romans. Some imagine Vertum- 
nus an emblem of the year, which, though it assume dif- 
ferent dresses according to the different seasons, is at no 
time so luxuriant as in autumn, when the harvest is 
crowned, and the fruits appear in their full perfection and 
lustre ; but historians say that Vertumnus was an ancient 
king of the Tuscans, who first taught his people the 
method of planting orchards, gardens, and vineyards, and 
the manner of cultivating, pruning, and grafting fruit- 
trees ; whence he is reported to have married Pomona. 
Some think he was called Vertumnus, from turning the 
lake Curtus into the Tiber. 



CHAPTER VI. 

Goddesses of the Woods. 

DIANA, daughter of Jupiter and Latona, and sister of 
Apollo, was born in the island of Delos. She had a 



108 MYTHOLOGY . 

throe-fold divinity, being styled Diana on earth, Luna, 
or the moon, in heaven, and Hecate, or Proserpine, in 

hell. The pools say she had three heads, one of a horse, 
another of a woman, and the third of a do*:. Hesiod 
makes Diana, Lima, and Hecate, three distinguished 
goddesses. 

Of all the various characters o\' this goddess, there is 
no one more known than that o\' her presiding over woods, 
and delighting in hunting. The Diana Yenatrix, or god- 
dess of the chase, is frequently represented as running 
on, with her vest flying back with the wind, notwith- 
standing its being shortened, and girt about her for 
expedition. She is tall o( stature, and her face, though so 
very handsome, is something manly. ller feet are some- 
times bare, and sometimes adorned with a sort of buskin, 
which was worn by the huntresses o\' old. She often has 
a quiver on her shoulder, ami sometimes holds a javelin, 
but more usually her bow, in her right hand. It is thus 
she makes her appearance in several o\' her statues, and 
it is thus the Roman poets describe her, particularly in 
the epithets they give this goddess, in the use of which 
they are so happy that they often bring the idea oi' whole 
figures of her into your mind by a single word. The 
statues of this Diana were very frequent in woods : she 
was represented there in all the different ways they could 
think of; sometimes as hunting, sometimes as bathing, 
and sometimes as resting herself after her fatigue. The 
height of Diana's stature is frequently marked out in the 
poets, and that, generally, by comparing her with her 
nymphs. 

Another great character o\" Diana is that under which 
she is represented as the intelligence which presides over 
the planet of the moon ; in which she is depicted in her 
car as directing that planet. Her figure under this char- 
acter is frequently enough to be met with on gems and 
medals, which generally exhibit, her with a lunar crown, 
or crescent on her forehead, and sometimes as drawn by 
stags, sometimes by does, but, more commonly than ei- 
ther, by horses. The poets speak of her chariot and her 
horses; they agree with the artists in giving her but two, 
and show, that the painters of old generally drew them of 
a perfect white color. 

A third remarkable way of representing Diana was 
with three bodies; this is very common among the an- 



MYTHOLOGY, iOU 

cierit figures of the goddess, and it is hence the poets 
call her the triple, the three-headed, and the three-bodied 
Diana. Her distinguishing name under this triple appear- 
gnce is Hec&te, of Trivia; a goddess frequently invoked 
in enchantments, and fit. for such black operations ; for this 
is tlic infernal Diana, and as such is represented with the 

characteristics of a fury, rather than as one of the twelve 
great celestial deities: all her hands hold instruments of 
terror, and generally grasp either cords, or swords, or ser- 
pents, or fire-brands. 
There are various conjectures concerning the name 

Hecate, which is supposed to corne from a Greek word 
signifying an hundred., either because an hundred victims 

Bt a time used to be offered to her, or else because by her 
edicts the ghosts of those who die without burial, wander 
an hundred years upon the banks of the Styx. Mycolo- 
gists say that Hecate is the order and force, of the Fates, 
who obtained from the divine power that influence which 

they have over human bodies; that the operation of the 

Fates ;ire hidden, but. descend by the means and inter- 
position Of the stars, wherelbre it is necessary that all 
inferior things submit to the cares, calamities, and death 
which the Pates bring upon them, without any possibility 
of resisting the divine will. 

Ilesiod relates of Hecate, to show the extent of her pow- 
er, that Jupiter had heaped gifts and honors upon her far 
above all the other deities; that she was empress of the 
earth and sea, and all things which are comprehended in 
the compass of the heavens ; that she was a goddess easy 
to be entreated, kind, arid always ready to do good, boun- 
tiful of gold and riches, which are wholly in her power; 
that whatever springs from seed, whether in heaven, or on 
earth, is subject, to her, arid that she governs the fates of all 
things. 

PALES was a rural goddess of the Romans. She was 
properly the divinity of shepherds, and the tutelar deity 
and protectress of their flocks. Jler votaries had usually 
wooden images of her. A feast called Palilia or Parilia 
was celebrated on the twenty-first of April, or, according 
to some, in May, in the open fields. The offerings were 
milk and cakes of millet, in order to engage her to defend 
their flocks from wild beasts arid infectious diseases. As 
j) art of tin: ceremony, they burned heaps of straw, and 
I eaped over them. Some make Pales the same with Ves* 



104 MYTHOLOGY. 

ta or Cybele. This goddess is represented as an old 
woman. 

FLORA, the goddess of flowers, was a Roman deity* 
The ancients made her the wife of Zephyrus, to intimate 
that Flora, or the natural heat of the plant, must concur 
with the influence of the warmest wind for the production 
of flowers. Varro reckons Flora among the ancient dei- 
ties of the Sabines, which were received into Rome on 
the union of the Sabines with the Romans. Ovid says, 
that her Greek name was Chloris, and that the Latins 
changed it into Flora. 

FERONIA was the goddess of woods and orchards. 
She is called Feronia from the verb fero, to bring forth, 
because she produced and propagated trees, or from Fe- 
ronici, a town situated near the foot of Mount Soracte, 
in Italy, where was a wood, and a temple dedicated to 
her ; which town and wood are mentioned by Virgil, in 
his catalogue of the forces of Turnus. The Lacedemoni- 
ans first introduced her worship into Italy under Evander ; 
for these people, being offended at the rigor of the laws 
of Lycurgus, resolved to seek out some new plantation, 
and arriving, after a long and dangerous voyage, in Italy, 
they, to show their gratitude for their preservation, built 
a temple to Feronia, so called from their hearing pa- 
tiently all the fatigues and dangers they had encoun- 
tered in their voyage. This edifice casually taking fire, 
the people ran to remove and preserve tre image of the 
goddess, when on a sudden the fire became extinguished, 
and the grove assumed a native and flourishing verdure. 

Horace mentions the homage that was paid to this dei- 
ty, by washing the face and hands, according to custom, 
in the sacred fountain which flowed near her temple. 
Slaves received the cap of liberty at her shrine, on which 
account they regarded her as their patroness. How Fe- 
ronia was descended, where born, or how educated, is not 
transmitted to us ; but she is said to have been wife to Jupi- 
ter Anxur, so called, because he was worshipped in that 
place. 

NYMPH/E, the NYMPHS, were certain inferior god- 
desses, inhabiting the mountains, woods, valleys, rivers, 
seas, &c. said to be daughters of Oceanus and Tethys. Ac- 
cording to ancient mythology, the whole universe was full 
of these nymphs, who are distinguished into several ranks 
and classes, though the general division cf them is into 



MYTHOLOGY. 105 

celestial and terrestrial. I. The Celestial Nymphs, call- 
ed Urania, were supposed to govern the heavenly bodies 
or spheres. II. The Terrestrial Nymphs, called Epi- 
geicc, presided over the several parts of the inferior world ; 
these were again subdivided into those of the water, and 
those of the earth. 

The Nymphs of the water were ranged under several 
classes : 1. The Oceanides, or Nymphs of the ocean. 2. 
The Nereids, daughters of Nereus and Doris. 3. The 
Naiads, Nymphs of the fountains. 4. The Ephydriades, 
also Nymphs of the fountains ; and 5. The Limniades, 
Nymphs of the lakes. The Nymphs of the earth were like- 
wise divided into different classes ; as, 1. The Oreades, or 
Nymphs of the mountains. 2. The Napaeae, Nymphs of the 
meadows ; and 3. The Dryads and Hamadryads, Nymphs 
of the woods and forests. Besides these, there were Nymphs 
who took their names from particular countries, rivers, 
&lc. as the Dardamdes, Tiberides, Ismenides, &c. 

Pausanias reports it as the opinion of the ancient poets 
that the Nymphs were not altogether free from death, or 
immortal, but that their years were in a manner innumer- 
able ; that prophecies were inspired by the Nymphs, as 
well as the other deities ; and that they had foretold the 
destruction of several cities : they were likewise esteem- 
ed as the authors of divination. 

Meursius is of opinion, that the Greeks borrowed their 
notion of these divinities from the Phoenicians, for nympha, 
in their language, signifying soul, the Greeks imagined 
that the souls of the ancient inhabitants of Greece had 
become Nymphs ; particularly that the souls of those who 
had inhabited the woods were called Dryads; those who 
inhabited the mountains, Oreades ; those who dwelt on the 
sea-coasts, Nereids; and, lastly, those who had their place 
of abode near rivers or fountains, Naiads. Though goats 
were sometimes sacrificed to the Nymphs, yet their stated 
offerings were milk, oil, honey and wine. They were 
represented as young and beautiful virgins, and dressed in 
conformity to the character ascribed to them. 



10 



106 MYTHOLOGY. 

CHAPTER VII. 

Gods of the Sea. 

NEPTUNE was the son of Saturn, and Rhea or Ops, 
and brother ot Jupiter. When arrived at maturity, he 
assisted his brother Jupiter in his expeditions, for which 
that god, on attaining to supreme power, assigned him 
the sea and the islands for his empire. Whatever attach- 
ment Neptune might have had to his brother at one pe- 
riod, he was at another expelled heaven for entering into 
a conspiracy against him, in conjunction with several 
other deities ; whence he fled, with Apollo, to Laomedon, 
king of Troy, where Neptune having assisted in raising 
the walls of the city, and being dismissed unrewarded, in 
revenge, sent a sea-monster to lay waste the country. 

On another occasion, this deity had a contest with Vul- 
can and Minerva, in regard to their skill. The goddess, 
as a proof of her's, made a horse, Vulcan a man, and 
Neptune a bull, whence that animal was used in the sa- 
crifices to him, though it is probable that, as the victim 
was to be black, the design was to point out the raging 
quality and fury of the sea, over which he presided. The 
Greeks make Neptune to have been the creator of the 
horse, which he produced from out of the earth with a 
blow of his trident, when disputing with Minerva who 
should give the name to Cecropia, which was afterwards 
called Athens, from the name in Greek of Minerva, who 
made an olive tree spring up suddenly, and thus obtained 
the victory. 

In this fable, however, it is evident that the horse 
could signify nothing but a ship; for the two things in 
which that region excelled being ships and olive-trees, it 
was thought politic by this means to bring the citizens 
over from too great a fondness for sea affairs, to the cul- 
tivation of their country, by showing that Pallas was pre- 
ferable to Neptune, or, in other words, husbandry to sailing, 
which, without some further meaning, the production of 
a horse could never have done. It notwithstanding ap- 
pears that Neptune had brought the management of the 
horse, as likewise the art of building ships, to very great 
perfection ; insomuch that Pamphus, who was the most 



MYTHOLOGY. 107 

ancient writer of hymns to the gods, calls him the bene- 
factor of mankind, in bestowing upon them horses and 
ships which had stems and decks that resembled towers. 

If Neptune created the horse, he was likewise the in- 
ventor of chariot-races ; hence Mithridates, king of Pon- 
tus, threw chariots, drawn by four horses, into the sea, in 
honor of Neptune : and the Romans instituted horse-races 
in the circus during his festival, at which time all horses 
ceased from working, and the mules were adorned with 
wreaths of flowers. 

Neptune, represented as a god of the sea, makes a 
considerable figure : he is described with black or dark 
hair, his garment of an azure or sea-green color, seated in 
a large shell drawn by whales, or sea-horses, with his 
trident in his hand, attended by the sea-gods Palaemon, 
Glaucus, and Phorcys ; the sea-goddesses Thetis, Melita, 
and Panopea, and a long train of Tritons and sea- 
nymphs. 

The inferior artists represent him sometimes with an 
angry and disturbed air ; and we may observe the same 
difference in this particular between the great and inferi- 
or poets as there is between the bad and the good artists. 
Thus Ovid describes Neptune with a sullen look, whereas 
Virgil expressly tells us that he has a mild face, even 
where he is representing him in a passion. Even at the 
time that he is provoked, and might be expected to have 
appeared disturbed, and in a passion, there is serenity and 
majesty in his face. 

On some medals he treads on the beak of a ship, to 
show that he presided over the seas, or more particu- 
larly over the Mediterranean sea, which was the great, 
and almost the only scene for navigation among the old 
Greeks and Romans. He is standing, as he gener- 
ally was represented ; he most commonly, too, has his 
trident in his right hand : this was his peculiar sceptre, 
and seems to have been used by him chiefly to rouse 
up the waters; for we find sometimes that he lays it aside 
when he is to appease them, but he resumes it when 
there is occasion for violence. Virgil makes him shake 
Troy from its foundation with it ; and in Ovid it is with 
the stroke of this that the waters of the earth are let loose 
for the general deluge. The poets have generally delighted 
in describing this god as passing over the calm surface of 
the waters, in his chariot drawn by sea-horses. The fine 



108 MYTHOLOGY. 

original description of this is in Homer, from whom Virgil 
and Statius have copied it. - 

In searching for the mythological sense of the fable, 
we must again have recourse to Egypt, that kingdom 
which, above all others, has furnished the most ample 
harvest for the reaper of mysteries. The Egyptians, to 
denote navigation, and the return of the Phoenician fleet, 
which annually visited their coast, used the figure of an 
Osiris borne on a winged horse, and holding a three- 
forked spear, or harpoon. To this image they gave the 
name of Poseidon, or Neptune, which, as the Greeks and 
Romans afterwards adopted, sufficiently proves this deity 
had his birth here. Thus the maritime Osiris of the 
Egyptians became a new deity with those who knew not 
the meaning of the symbol. 

TRITON. It is not agreed who were the parents of 
Triton ; but he was a sea-deity, the herald and trumpeter 
of Oceanus and Neptune. He sometimes delighted in 
mischief, for he carried off the cattle from the Tanagrian 
fields, and destroyed the smaller coasting vessels ; so that 
to appease his resentment, the Tanagrians offered him 
libations of new wine. Pleased with its flavor and taste, 
he drank so freely that he fell asleep, and tumbling from 
an eminence, one of the natives cut of his head. He left 
a daughter called Tristia. 

The poets ordinarily attribute to Triton, the office of 
calming the sea, and stilling of tempests: thus in the Met- 
amorphoses we read, that Neptune desiring to recall the 
waters of the deluge, commanded Triton to sound his 
trumpet, at the noise of which they retired to their respec- 
tive channels, and left the earth again habitable, having 
swept off almost the whole human race. 

This god is exhibited in the human form from the waist 
upwards, with blueeyes, a large mouth, and hair matted like 
wild parsley ; his shoulders covered with a purple skin, 
variegated with small scales, his feet resembling the fore 
feet of a horse, and his lower parts terminating in a double 
forked tail : sometimes he is seen in a car, with horses 
of a bright cerulean. His trumpet is a large conch, or 
sea-shell. There were several Tritons, but one chief over 
all, the distinguished messenger of Neptune, as Mercury 
was of Jupiter, and Iris of Juno. 

OCEANUS, oldest son of Coelus and Terra, or Vesta. 
He married Tethys, and besides her had many other 



MYTHOLOGY. 109 

wives. He bad several sisters, all Nymphs, each of whom 
possessed an hundred woods and as many rivers. Ocean- 
us was esteemed by the ancients as the father both of 
gods and men, who were said to have taken their begin- 
ning from him, on account of the ocean's encompassing 
the earth with its waves, and because he was the principal 
of that radical moisture diffused through universal matter, 
without which, according to Thales, nothing could either 
be produced or subsist. 

Homer makes Juno visit Oceanus at the remotest limits 
of the earth, and acknowledge him and Tethys as the pa- 
rents of the gods, adding, that she herself had been brought 
up under their tuition. Many of his children are mention- 
ed in poetical story, whose names it would be endless to 
enumerate, and, indeed, they are only the appellations of 
the principal rivers of the world. Oceanus was described 
with a bull's head, to represent the rage and bellowing of 
the ocean when agitated by storms. Oceanus and Tethys 
are ranked in the highest classes of sea-deities, and as 
governors in chief over the whole world of waters. 

NEREUS, a sea-deity, was son of Oceanus, by Tethys. 
Apollodorus gives him Terra for his mother. His educa- 
tion and authority were in the waters, and his residence, 
more particularly, the iEgean seas. He had the faculty of 
assuming what form he pleased. He was regarded as a 
prophet; and foretold to Paris the war which the rape of 
Helen would bring upon his country. When Hercules 
was ordered to fetch the golden apples of the Hespendes, 
he went to the Nymphs inhabiting the grottoes of Erid- 
anus, to know where he might find them ; the Nymphs sent 
him to Nereus, who, to elude the inquiry, perpetually va- 
ried his form, till Hercules having seized him, resolved to 
hold him till he resumed his original shape, on which he 
yielded the desired information. Nereus had, by his sister 
Doris, fifty daughters called Nereids. Hesiod highly cele- 
brates him as a mild and peaceful old man, a lover of jus- 
tice and moderation. Nereus and Doris, with their de- 
scendants the Nereids, or Oceaniads, so called from Oce- 
anus, are ranked in the third class of water deities. 

PALJEMON, or MELICERTES, was son of Athamas, 
king of Thebes and Ino. The latter fearing the rage of 
her husband, who in his madness had killed his son Lear- 
chus, took Melicertes in her arms, and leaped with him 
from the rock Molyris into the sea. Neptune received 
10* 



1 10 MYTHOLOGY. 

them with open arms, and gave them a place among the 
marine gods, only changing their names, lno being called 
Leucothea, or Leucothoe, and Melicei tes, Palcemon. Ino, 
under the name Leucothea, is supposed, by some, to be the 
same with Aurora: the Romans gave her the name of 
Matuta, she being reputed the goddess that ushers in the 
morning ; and Palaernon, they called Portumnus, or Por- 
tunnus, and painted him with a key in his hand, to denote 
that he was the guardian of harbors. Adorations were paid 
to him chiefly at Tenedos, and the sacrifice offered to him 
was an infant. 

Pausanias says that the body of Melicertes was thrown 
on the Isthmus of Corinth where Sisyphus, his uncle, who 
reigned in that city, instituted the Isthmian games in his 
honor. For this fable we are indebted to the fertile in- 
vention of the Greeks, Melicertes being no other than the 
Melcarthus or the Hercules of Tyre, who, from having 
been drowned in the sea, was called a god of it, and from 
his many voyages, the guardian of harbors. 

GLAUCUS. a sea-deity. His story, which is very fan- 
ciful, shows the extravagance of poetical fiction amongst 
the ancients. Before his deification, Glaucus is said to 
have been a fisherman of Anthedon, who having one day 
remarked that the fishes which he laid on a particular 
herb revived and threw themselves into the sea, resolved 
himself to taste it, and immediately followed their example : 
the consequence was, that he became a Triton, and ever 
after was reputed a marine deity, attending with the rest 
on the car of Neptune. 

The descent of this deity is exceeding dubious. He is 
said to have carried off Ariadne from the island Dia, for 
which Bacchus bound him fast with vine-twigs. The ship 
Argo is said to have been constructed by him, and he is 
not only mentioned as commanding her, when Jason fought 
with the Tyrrhenians, but as being the only one of her ciew 
that came off without a wound. He dwelt some time at 
Delos, and, besides prophesying with the Nereids, is affirm- 
ed to have instructed Apollo in the art. 

SCYLLA was the daughter of Pborcus, or Phorcys, by 
Ceto. Glaucus, being passionately fond of Scylla, after 
vainly endeavoring to gain her affections, applied to Circe, 
and besought her, bv her art, to induce her to return his 
affection. On this, Circe disclosed to him her passion, but 
Glaucus remaining inexorable, the enchantress vowed re- 
venge, and by her magic charms so infected the fountain 
in which Scylla bathed, that on entering it, her lower parts 



MYTHOLOGY. Ill 

were turned into dogs , at which the nymph, terrified at 
herself, plunged into the sea, and there was changed to a 
rock, notorious for the shipwrecks it occasioned. 

Authors are disagreed as to Scylla's form ; some say she 
retained her beauty from the neck downwards, but had six 
dog's heads : others maintain, that her upper parts contin- 
ued entire, but that she had below the body of a wolf, and 
the tail of a serpent. The rock named Scylla, lies be- 
tween Italy and Sicily, and the noise of the waves beating 
on it is supposed to have occasioned the fable of the bark- 
ing of dogs, and howling of wolves, ascribed to the imagi- 
nary monster. 

CHAEIYBDTS was a rapacious woman, a female rob- 
ber, who, it is said, stole the oxen of Hercules, for which 
she was thunder-struck by Jupiter, and turned into a 
whirlpool, dangerous to sailors. This whirlpool was situa- 
ted opposite the rock Scylla, at the entrance of the Faro 
from Messina, and occasioned the proverb of running into 
one danger to avoid another. Some affirm that Hercules 
killed her himself; others, that Scylla committed this rob- 
bery, and was killed for it by Hercules. 



CHAPTER VIII. 

Tartarus and its Deities. 

TARTARUS or HELL, the region of punishment after 
death. The whole imaginary world, which we call Hell, 
though according to the ancients it was the receptacle o( 
all departed persons, of the good as well as the bad, is di- 
vided by Virgil into five parts : the first may be called the 
previous region; the second is the region of waters, or the 
river which they were all to pass ; the third is what we 
may call the gloomy region, and what the ancients called 
Erebus; the fourth is Tartarus, or the region of torments; 
and l he fifth the region of joy and bliss, or what we still 
call Elysium. 

The first part in it Virgil has stocked with two so-rts of 
beings; first, with those which make the real misery of 
mankind upon earth, such as war, discord, labor, grief, 
cares, distempers, and old age ; and, secondly, with fancied 
terrors, and all the most frightful creatures of our own im- 
agination, such as Gorgons, Harpies, ChimaBras and the 
like. 



112 



MYTHOLOGY, 



The next is the water which all the departed were sup- 
posed to pass, to enter into the other world ; this was call- 
ed Styx, or the hateful passage : the imaginary personages 
of this division are the souls of the departed, who are either 
passing oyer, or suing for a passage, and the master of a 
vessel who carries them over, one freight after another, ac- 
cording to his will and pleasure. 

The third division begins immediately with the bank on 
the other side the river, and was supposed to extend a great 
way in : it is subdivided again into several particular dis- 
tricts; the first seems to be the receptacle for infants. The 
next for all such as have been put to death without a cause ; 
next is the place for those who have put a period to their 
own lives, a melancholy region, and situated amidst the 
marshes made by the overflowings of the Styx, or hateful 
river, or passage into the other world : after this are the 
fields of mourning, full of dark woods and groves, and in- 
habited by those who died of love : last of all spreads an 
open champaign country, allotted for the souls of departed 
warriors; the name of this whole division is Erebus: its 
several districts seem to be disposed all in a line, one after 
the other, but after this the great line or road divides into 
two, of which the right hand road leads to Elysium, or the 
place of the blessed, and the left hand road to Tartarus, or 
the place of the tormented. 

The fourth general division of the subterraneous world 
is this Tartarus, or the place of torments : there was a city 
in it, and a prince to preside over it : within this city was 
a vast deep pit, in which the tortures were supposed to be 
performed : in this horrid part Virgil places two sorts of 
souls ; first, of such as have shown their impiety and re- 
bellion toward the gods ; and secondly, of such as have 
been vile and mischievous among men : those, as he him- 
self says of the latter more particularly, who hated their 
brethren, used their parents ill, or cheated their depend- 
ants, who made no use of their riches, who committed incest, 
or disturbed the marriage union of others, those who were 
rebellious subjects, or knavish servants, who were despisers 
of justice, or betrayers of their country, and who made and 
unmade laws not for the good of the public, but only to get 
money for themselves ; all these, and the despisers of the 
gods, Virgil places in this most horrid division of his subter- 
raneous world, and in the vast abyss, which was the most 
terrible part even of that division. 



MYTHOLOGY. 113 

The fifth division is that of Elysium, or the place of the 
blessed; here Virgil places those who died for their coun- 
try, those of pure lives, truly inspired poets, the inventors 
of arts, and all who have done good to mankind: he does 
not speak of any particular districts for these, but supposes 
that they have the liberty of going where they please in 
that delightful region, and conversing with whom they 
please; he only mentions one vale, towards the end of it, 
as appropriated to any particular use ; this is the vale of 
Lethe or forget fulness, where many of the ancient philoso- 
phers, and the Platonists in particular, supposed the souls 
which had passed through some periods of their trial, were 
immersed in the river which gave its name to it, in order to 
be put into new bodies, and to fill up the whole course of 
their probation, in an upper world. 

In each of these three divisions, on the other side of the 
river Styx, which perhaps were comprehended under the 
name of Ades, as all the five might be under that of Orcus, 
was a prince or judge: Minos for the regions of Erebus; 
Rhadamanthus for Tartarus ; and JEacus for Elysium, 
Pluto and Proserpine had their palace at the entrance of 
the road to the Elysian fields, and presided as sovereigns 
over the whole subterraneous world. 

PLUTO, son of Saturn and Ops, assisted Jupiter in his 
wars, and after victory had crowned their exertions in pla- 
cing his brother on the throne, be obtained a share of his 
fathei's dominions, which, as some authors say, was the 
eastern continent, and lower regions of Asia ; but, accord- 
ing to the common opinion, Pluto's division lay in the west. 
He fixed his residence in Spain, and lived in Iberia, near 
the Pyrrenaean mountains : Spain being a fertile country, 
and abounding in minerals and mines, Pluto was esteemed 
the god of wealth ; for it must be here observed, that the 
poets confound Pluto, god of hell, with Plutus, god of rich- 
es, though they were distinct deities, and always so consid- 
ered by the ancients. 

Pluto's regions being supposed to lie under ground ; and 
as he was the first who taught men to bury their dead, it 
was thence inferred that he was king of the infernal re- 
gions, whence sprung a belief, that as all souls descended 
to him, so when they were in his possession, he bound them 
with inevitable chains, and delivered them to be tried by 
judges, after which he dispensed rewards and punishments 
according to their several deserts. Pluto was therefore 



114 MYTH0LOG1, 

called the infernal Jupiter, and oblations were made to him 
by the living, for the souls of their friends departed. 

Although Pluto was brother of Jupiter, yet none of the 
goddesses would condescend to marry him, owing to the 
deformity of his person, joined to the darkness of his man- 
sions. Enraged at this reluctance in the goddesses, and 
mortified at his want of issue, Pluto ascended his chariot, 
and drove to Sicily, where chancing to discover Proserpine 
with her companions gathering flowers in a valley of Enna, 
near mount JBtna, the grisly god, struck with her charms, 
instantly seized her, and forcing her into his chariot, went 
rapidly off to the river Chemarus, through which he opened 
himself a passage to the realms of night. Orpheus says^ 
this descent was made through the Cecropian cave in Attica ? 
not far from Eleusis. 

His whole domains are washed with vast and rapid rivers^ 
whose peculiar qualities strike horror into mortals. Cocy- 
tns falls with an impetuous roaring ; Phlegethon rages with 
a torrent of flames ; the Acharusian fen is dreadful for its 
stench and filth: nor does Charon, the ferryman, who wafts 
souls over, occasion any less horror ; Cerberus, the triple 
headed dog, stands ready with open mouths to receive 
them ; and the Furies shake at them their serpentine 
locks. 

Thus far the common fable ; but the following seems the 
true foundation of the story which has been so much dis- 
guised ; Pluto having retired into Spain, applied himself to 
the working of the mines of silver and gold, which in that 
country, were very common, especially on the side of Cadiz, 
where he fixed his abode. Boetica, his residence, was that 
province now called Andalusia, and the river Bcetis, now 
Guadalquiver, gave that name to it. This river formed of 
old, at its mouth, a small island, called Tartessus, which 
was the Tartessus of the ancients, and whence Tartarus 
was formed. 

It may be remarked, that though Spain be not now fertile 
in mines, yet the ancients speak of it as a country where 
they abounded. Posidonius says, that its mountains and 
hills were almost all mountains of gold ; Arienus, that near 
Tartessus was a mountain of silyer; and Aristotle, that 
the first Phoenicians who landed there, found such quanti- 
ties of gold and of silver, that they made anchors for their 
ships of those precious metals. This, doubtless, is what 
determined Pluto, who was ingenius in such operations, to 



MYTHOLOGY. 115 

Ex himself near to Tartessus; and this making him pass 
also for a wealthy prince, procured for him the name of 
Pluto, instead of that of Agelestus. 

The situation of Pluto's kingdom, which was low in re- 
spect to Greece, occasioned him to be looked on as the god 
of hell ; and as he continually employed laborers for his 
mines, who chiefly resided in the bowels of the earth, and 
there commonly died, Pluto was reputed the king of the 
dead. The ocean, likewise, upon whose coasts he reigned, 
was supposed to be covered with darkness. These circum- 
stances united, appear to have been the foundation of the 
fables afterwards invented concerning Pluto and his realms 
of night. It is probable, for example, that the famous Tar- 
tarus, the place so noted in the empire of this god, comes 
from Tartessus, near Cadiz : the river Lethe not unlikely 
from the Guada-Lethe, which flows over against that city ; 
and the lake Avernus, or the Acheronian fen, from the word 
Aharona, importing, at_ the extremities, a name given to that 
lake, which is near the ocean. 

Pluto was extremely revered both by the Greeks and Ro- 
mans. He had a magnificent temple at Pylos. Near the 
river Corellus, in Bceotia, he had also an altar, for some 
mystical reason, in common with Pallas. His chief festival 
was in February, and called Charistia, because their obla- 
tions were made for the dead. Black bulls were the vic- 
tims offered up, and the ceremonies were performed in the 
night, it not being lawful to sacrifice to him in the day time, 
on account of his aversion to the light. The cypress tree 
was sacred to Pluto, boughs of which were carried at fu- 
nerals. 

He is usually represented in an ebony chariot, drawn by 
his four black horses, Orphnseus, ^Ethon, Nycteus, and 
Alastor. As god of the dead, keys were the ensigns of 
his authority, because there is no possibility of returning 
when the gates of his palace are locked. Sometimes he 
holds a sceptre, to denote his power ; at other times a wand, 
with which he directs the movements of his subject ghosts. 
Homer speaks of his hemlet as having the quality of ren- 
dering the wearer invisible; and tells us that Minerva bor- 
rowed it when she fought against the Trojans, that she 
might not be discovered by Mars. Perseus also used this 
hemlet when he cut off Medusa's head. 

Mycologists pretend that Pluto is the earth, the natural 
powers and faculties of which are under his direction, so 



116 MYTHOLOGY. 

that he is monarch not only of all riches which come from 
thence, and are at length swallowed up by it, but likewise 
of the dead ; for as all living things spring from the earth, 
so are they resolved into the principles whence they arose. 
Proserpine is by them reputed to be the seed or grain of 
fruits or corn, which must be taken into the earth, and hid 
there before it can be nourished by it. 

PLIITUS, the god of riches. Though Plutus be not an 
infernal god, yet as his name and office were similar to Plu- 
to's, we shall here distinguish them, although both were 
gods of riches. Pluto was born of Saturn and Ops, or 
Rhea, and was brother of Jupiter and Neptune ; but Plu- 
tus, the god of whom we here speak, was son of Jason or 
Jasion by Ceres. He is represented blind and lame, injudi- 
cious and fearful. Being lame, he confers estates but slow- 
ly : for want of judgment, his favors are commonly bestow- 
ed on the unworthy ; and as he is timorous, so he obliges 
rich men to watch their treasures with fear. Plutus is paint- 
ed with wings, to signify the swiftness of his retreat, when 
he takes his departure. Little more of him remains in sto- 
ry, than that he had a daughter named Euribcea ; unless 
the comedy of Aristophanes, called by his name, be taken 
into the account. 

Aristophanes says that this deity, having at first a very 
clear sight, bestowed his favors only on the just and good : 
but that after Jupiter deprived him of vision, riches fell in- 
differently to the good and the bad. A design being formed 
for the recovery of his sight, Penia or poverty opposed it, 
making it appear that poverty is the mistress of arts, scien- 
ces, and virtues, which would be in danger of perishing if 
all men were rich ; but no credit being given to her re- 
monstrance, Plutus recovered his sight in the temple of JE$~ 
culapius, whence the temples and altars of other gods, and 
those of Jupiter himself, were abandoned, the whole world 
sacrificing to Plutus alone. 

PROSERPINE, the daughter of Jupiter and Ceres, was 
educated with Minerva and Diana. By reason of this fa- 
miliar intercourse, each chose a place in the island of Sici- 
ly for her particular residence. Minerva took the parts near 
Himera ; Diana those about Syracuse ; and Proserpine, in 
common with her sister goddesses, enjoyed the pleasant 
fields of Enna. Near at hand are groves and gardens, sur- 
rounded with morasses and a deep cave, with a passage un- 
der ground, opening towards the north. Tn this happy re- 



MVTHOLOCiV. 1 13 

tirement was Proserpine situated, when Pluto, passing in 
his chariot through the cave, discovered her whilst busy in 
gathering flowers, with her attendants, the daughters of 
Oceanus. Proserpine he seized, and having placed her in 
his chariot, carried her to Syracuse, where the earth open- 
ing, they both descended to the infernal regions. 

She had not been long there when the fame of her charms 
induced Theseus and Pirithous to combine for the purpose 
of carrying her thence; but in this they failed. When 
Ceres, who was disconsolate for the loss of her daughter, 
discovered where she was, Jupiter upon her repeated solici- 
tations, promised that Proserpine should be restored, pro- 
vided she had not yet tasted any thing in hell. Ceres joy- 
fully descended, and Proserpine, full of triumph, prepared 
for her return, when lo ! Ascalaphus, son of Acheron and 
Gorgyra, discovered that he saw Proserpine, as she walked 
in the garden of Pluto, eat some grains of a pomegranate, 
upon which her departure was stopped. At last, by the re- 
peated importunity of her mother to Jupiter, she extorted 
as a favor, in mitigation of her grief, that Proserpine 
should live half the year in heaven, and the other half in 
hell. 

Proserpine is represented under the form of a beautiful 
woman, enthroned, having something stern and melancholy 
in her aspect. Slatius has found out a melancholy employ- 
ment for her, which is, to keep a sort of register of the dead, 
and to mark down all that should be added to that number. 
The same poet mentions another of her offices of a more 
agreeable nature : he says, when any woman dies who had 
been a remarkably good wife in this world, Proserpine pre- 
pares the spirits of the best women in the other to make a 
procession to welcome her into Elysium with joy, and to 
strew all the way with flowers where she is to pass. 

Some represent Proserpine, Luna, Hecate, and Diana, as 
one ; the same goddess being called Luna in heaven, Diana 
on earth, and Hecate in hell : and they explain the fable of 
the moon, which is hidden from us in the hemisphere of the 
countries beneath, just so long as it shines in our own. As 
Proserpine was to stay six months with her mother, and six 
with her husband, she was the emblem of the seed corn, 
which lies in the earth during the winter, but in spring 
sprouts forth, and in summer bears fruit. 

The mythological sense of the fable is this : the name of 
Proserpine, or Persephone, among the Egyptians, was used 
11 



US MYTHOLOGY. 

to denote the change produced in the eartli by the deluge, 
which destroyed its former fertility, and rendered tillage and 
agriculture necessary to mankind. 

PA LICE, or FATES, were goddesses supposed to pre- 
side over the accidents and events, and to determine the 
date or period of human life. They were reckoned by the 
ancients to be three in number, because all things have a 
beginning, progress, and end. They were the daughters of 
Jupiter and Themis, and sisters to the Hone, or Hours. 

Their names, amongst the Greeks, were Atropos, Clotho, 
and Lachesis, and among the Latins, Nona, DecTma, Mor- 
ta. They are called Parca% because, as Varro thinks, they 
distributed to mankind good and bad things at their birth ; 
or, as the common and received opinion is, because they 
spare nobody. They were always of the same mind, so 
that though dissensions sometimes arose among the other 
gods, no difference was ever known to subsist among these 
three sisters, whose decrees were immutable. To them was 
intrusted the spinning and management of the thread of 
life ; Clotho held the distaff, Lachesis turned the wheel, 
and Atropos cut the thread. 

Plutarch tells us they represented the three parts of the 
world, viz. the firmament of the fixed stars, the firmament 
of the planets, and the space of air between the moon and 
the earth ; Plato says they represented time past, present, 
and to come. There were no divinities in the pagan. 
world who had a more absolute power than the Fates. 
They were looked upon as the dispensers of the eternal 
decrees of Jupiter, and were all of them sometimes sup- 
posed to spin the party-colored thread of each man's life. 
Thus are they represented on a medal, each with a dis- 
taff in her hand. The fullest and best description of 
them in any of the poets, is in Catullus: he represents 
them as all spinning, and at the same time singing, and 
foretelling the birth and fortunes of Achilles, at Peleus' 
wedding. 

An ingenious writer, in giving the true mythology of 
these characters, apprehends them to have been, originally, 
nothing more than the mystical figure or symbols which 
represented the months of January, February, and March, 
among the Egyptians, who depicted them in female dresses, 
with the instruments of spinning and weaving, which was 
the great business carried on in that season. These images 
they called Pare, which signifies linen cloth, to denote the 



MYTHOLOGY. 



119 



manufacture produced by this temporary industry. The 
Greeks, ever fertile in invention, and knowing nothing 
of the true sense of these allegorical figures, gave them a 
turn suitable to their genius. 

FURIES, EUMENJDES, or DIR^, were the daughters 
of Nox and Acheron. Their names wereAlecto, Megaera, 
and Tisiphone. As many crimes were committed in se- 
cret, which could not be discovered from a deficiency of 
proof, it was necessary for the judges to have such officers 
as by wonderful and various tortures should force from the 
criminals a confession of their guilt. To this end the Fu- 
ries, being messengers both of the celestial and terrestrial 
Jupiter, were always attendant on their sentence. 

In heaven they were called Dirn3, (quad Dcorum ires) 
or ministers of divine vengeance, in punishing the guilty 
after death ; on earth Furies, from that madness which at- 
tends the consciousness of guilt ; Erynnis, rom the indig- 
nation and perturbations they raise in the mind : Eumenidcs, 
from their placability to such as supplicate them, as in the 
instance of Orestes, and Argos, upon his following the ad- 
vice of Pallas, and in hell, Stygian dogs. 

The furies were so dreaded that few dared so much as to 
name them. They were supposed to be constantly hover- 
ing about those who had been guilty of any enormous crime. 
ThusOrestes, having murdered his mother Clytemnestra, was 
haunted by the Furies. CEdipus, indeed, when blind and 
raving, went into their grove, to the astonishment of all the 
Athenians, who durst not so much as behold it. The Fu- 
ries were reputed so inexorable, that if any person polluted 
with murder, incest, or any flagrant impiety, entered the 
temple which Orestes had dedicated to them in Cyrenae, a 
town of Arcadia, he immediately became mad, and was 
hurried from place to place, with the most restless and dread- 
ful tortures. 

Mycologists have assigned to each of these tormentress- 
es their proper department. Tisiphone is said to punish the 
sins arising from hatred and anger ; Mega^ra those occa- 
sioned by envy ; and Alecto the crimes of ambition and 
lust. The statues of the Furies had nothing in them orig- 
in illy different from the other divinities. It was the poet 
^Eschylus who, in one of his tragedies, represented them in 
that hideous manner which proved fatal to many of the 
spectators. The description of these deities by the poet 
passed from the theatre to the temple : from that time they 



120 MYTHOLOGY. 

were exhibited as objects of the utmost horror, with Terror, 
Rage, Paleness, and Death, for their attendants ; and thus 
seated about Pluto's throne, whose ministers they were, they 
awaited his orders with an impatience congenial to their 
natures. 

The Furies are described with snakes instead of hair, 
and eyes inflamed with madness, brandishing in one hand 
whips and iron chains, and in the other torches, with a 
smothering flame. Their robes are black, and their feet of 
brass, to show that their pursuit, though slow, is steady and 
certain. As they attended at the thrones of the Stygian 
and celestial Jupiter, they had wings to accelerate their 
progress through the air, when bearing the commands of 
the gods : they struck terror into mortals, either by war, fa- 
mine, pestilence, or the numberless calamities incident to 
human life. 

NOX, or NIGHT, the oldest of the deities, was held in 
great esteem among the ancients. She was even reckoned 
older than Chaos. Orpheus ascribes to her the generation 
of gods and men, and says, that all things had their begin- 
ning from her. Pausanias has left us a description of a 
remarkable statue of this goddess. " We see," says he, " a 
woman holding in her right hand a white child sleeping, 
and in her left a black child likewise asleep, with both its 
legs distorted ; the inscription tells us what they are, though 
we might easily guess without it : the two children are 
Death and Sleep, and the woman is Night, the nurse of 
them both." 

The poets fancied her to be drawn in a chariot with two 
horses, before which several stars went as harbingers ; that 
she was crowned with poppies, and her garments were black, 
with a black veil over her countenance, and that stars fol- 
lowed in the same manner as they preceded her ; that upon 
the departure of the day she arose from the ocean, or rath- 
er from Erebus, and encompassed the earth with her sable 
wings. The sacrifice offered to Night was a cock because 
of its enmity to darkness, and rejoicing at the light. 

SOMNUS, or SLEEP, one of the blessings to which the 
pagans erected altars, was said to be son of Erebus and 
Night, and brother of Death. Orpheus calls Somnus the 
happy king of gods and men ; and Ovid, who gives a very 
beautiful description of his abode, represents him dwelling 
in a deep cave in the country of the Cimmerians. Into 
this cavern the sun never enters, and a perpetual stillness 



MYTHOLOGY. 121 

reigns, no noise being heard but the soft murmur caused by 
a stream of the river Lethe, which creeps over the pebbles, 
and invites to slumber ; at its entrance grow poppies, and 
other soporiferous herbs. The drowsy god lies reclined 
on a bed stuffed with black plumes, the bedstead is of ebo- 
ny, the covering is also black, and his head is surrounded 
by fantastic visions. 

We learn from Statius, that the attendants and guards 
before the gates of this palace were Rest, Ease, Indolence, 
Silence, and Oblivion ; as the ministers or attendants with- 
in are a vast multitude of Dreams in different shapes and 
attitudes. Ovid teaches us who were the supposed govern- 
ors over these, and what their particular districts or offices 
were. The three chiefs of all are Morpheus, Phobetor, 
and Phantasos, who inspire dreams into great persons only : 
Morpheus inspires such dreams as relate to men, Phobetor 
such as relate to other animals, and Phantasos such as re- 
late to inanimate things. They have each their particular 
legions under them, to inspire the common people with the 
sort of dreams which belong to their province. 

MINOS was son of Jupiter and Europa, and brother of 
Rhadamanthus and Sarpedon. After the death of his 
father, the Cretans, who thought him illegitimate, would 
not admit him as a successor to the kingdom, till he per- 
suaded them it was the divine pleasure he should reign, by 
praying Neptune to give him a sign, which being granted, 
the god caused a horse to rise out of the sea, upon which he 
ascended the throne. 

Nothing so much distinguished him as the laws he en- 
acted for the Cretans, which obtained him the name of one 
of the greatest legislators of antiquity. To confer the more 
authority on these laws, Minos retired to a cave of Mount 
Ida, where he feigned that Jupiter, his father, dictated them 
to him ; and every time he returned thence a new injunc- 
tion was promulgated by him. Homer calls him Jupiter's 
disciple ; and Horace says he was admitted to the secrets 
of that god. Strabo and Ephorus contend, that Minos 
dwelt nine years in retirement in this cave, and that it was 
afterwards called the cave of Jupiter. 

Antiquity entertained the highest esteem for the institutes 
of Minos : and the testimonies of ancient authors on this 
head are endless. It will, therefore, suffice to observe that 
Lycurgus travelled to Crete on purpose to collect the laws 
of Minos for the benefit of the Lacedemonians ; and that 
11* 



122 MYTHOLOGY. 

Josephus, partial as he was to bis own nation, has owned, 
that Minos was the only one among the ancients who de- 
i to be compared to Moses. He was reputed the judge 
of the supreme court of Pluto. JEacus judged the Eu- 
ropean?: the Asiatics and Africans fell to the lot of Rhad- 
amanthus; and Minos, as president of the infernal court, 
decided the differences which arose between these two 
judges. lie sat on a throne by himself, and wielded a 
golden sceptre. 

RHADAMANTHUS was the son of Jupiter and Eur6- 
pa, and brother of Minos. He was one of the three judges 
of hell. It is said that Rhadamanthus, having killed his 
brother, fled to CEchalia in Bceotia, where he married 
Alcmena, widow of Amphitryon. Some make Rhadaman- 
thus a king of Lycia, who on account of his severity and 
strict regard to justice, was said to have been one of the 
three judges of hell, where his province was to judge such 
as died impenitent. It is agreed, that he was the most 
temperate man of his time, and was exalted amongst the 
law-givers of Crete, who were renowned as good and just 
men. The division assigned to Rhadamanthus in the in- 
fernal regions was Tartarus. 

.EACUS, son of Jupiter and iEgina, was king of CEno- 
pia, which, from his mother's name, he called ./Eg in a. 
The inhabitants of that country being destroyed by a 
plague, iEacus prayed to his father that by some means 
he would repair the loss of his subjects, upon which Jupi- 
ter, in compassion changed all the ants within a hollow tree 
into men and women, who, from a Greek word signifying 
ants, were called Myrmidons, and actually were so in- 
dustrious a people as to become famous for their ships and 
navigation. 

The meaning of which fable is this : The pirates having 
destroyed the inhabitants of the island, excepting a few, 
who hid themselves in caves and holes for fear of a like 
fate, /Eacus drew them out of their retreats and encourag- 
ed them to build houses, and sow corn ; taught them mili- 
tary discipline, and how to fit out and navigate fleets, and 
to appear not like ants in holes, but on the theatre of the 
world, like men. His character for justice was such, that 
in a time of universal drought he was nominated by the 
Delphic qra&le to intercede for Greece, and his pra; ers 
were heard. The pagan world also believed that JEaous, 
on account of his impartial justice, was chosen by Pluto, 



MYTHOLOGY. 123 

with Minos and Rhadamanthus, one of the three judges of 
the dead, and that it was his province to judge the Euro- 
peans, in which capacity he held a plain rod as a badge of 
his office. 



CHAPTER IX. 

The condemned in Hell. 

v - 

TYPHOSUS, a giant of enormous size, was, according 
to Hesiod, son of Erebus, or Tartarus and Terra. His 
stature was prodigious. With one hand he touched the 
east, and with the other the west, while his head reached 
to the stars. Hesiod has given him an hundred heads of 
dragons, uttering dreadful sounds, and eyes which darted 
fire ; flame proceeded from his mouths and nostrils, his body 
was encircled with serpents, and his thighs and legs were 
of a serpentine form. When he had almost discomfited 
the gods, who fled from him into Egypt, Jupiter alone stood 
his ground, and pursued the monster to Mount Caucasus in 
Syria, where he wounded him with his thunder; But Ty- 
phosus, turning upon him, took the god prisoner, and after 
having cut, with his own sickle, the muscles of his hands 
and feet, threw him on his shoulders, carried him into Cili- 
cia, and there imprisoned him in a cave, whence he was 
delivered by Mercury, who restored him to his former vigor. 
Typhosus afterwards fled into Sicily, where the god over- 
whelmed him with the enormous mass of mount yEtna. 

Historians report, that Typhceus was brother of Osiris, 
king of Egypt, who in the absence of that monarch, formed 
a conspiracy to dethrone him ; and that having according- 
ly put Osiris to death, Isis, in revenge of her husband, rais- 
ed an army, the command of which she gave to Orus her 
son, who vanquished* and slew the usurper : hence the 
Egyptians, in abhorrence of his memory, painted him un- 
der their hieroglyphic characters in so frightful a manner. 
The length of his arms signified his power, the serpents 
about him denoted his address and cunning, the scales 
which covered his body, expressed his cruelty and dissimu- 
lation, and the flight of the gods into Egypt showed the 
precautions taken by the great to screen themselves from 
his fury and resentment. Mythologists take Typhceus and 



124 MYTHOLOGY. 

the other giants, to have been the winds ; especially the 
subterraneous, which cause earthquakes to break forth with 
fire, occasioned by the sulphur enkindled in the caverns un- 
der Campania, Sicily, and the ^Eolian islands. 

TITYOS,or TITYUS, was son of Jupiter and Elara. 
He resided in Panopea, where he became formidable for 
rapine and cruelty, till Apollo killed him for offering vio- 
lence to his mother Latona. After this he was thrown into 
Tartarus, and chained down on his back, his body taking 
up such a compass as to cover nine acres. In this posture 
two vultures continually preyed upon his liver, which con- 
stantly grew with the increase of the moon, that there might 
never be wanting matter for eternal punishment. 

PHLEGYAS, son of Mars and Chryse, daughter of 
Halmus, was king of Lapithse, a people of Thessaly. Apollo 
having seduced his daughter Coronis, Phlegyas, in revenge, 
set fire to the temple of that god at Delphi, for which sac- 
rilege the deity killed him with his arrows, and then cast 
him into Tartarus ; where he was sentenced to sit under 
a huge rock, which threatened him with perpetual destruc- 
tion. 

IXION was son of Phlegyas, king of the LapithaB in 
Thessaly. He married Dia, daughter of Deioneus, whose 
consent he obtained by magnificent promises, but, failing 
afterwards to perform them, Deioneus seized on his horses. 
Ixion dissembled his resentment, arid inviting Deioneus to 
a banquet, received him in an apartment previously prepar- 
ed, from which, by withdrawing a door, his father-in-law 
was thrown into a furnace of fire. Stung, however, with 
remorse, and universally despised, Ixion was overpowered 
with frenzy, till Jupiter at length re-admitted him to favor, 
and not only took him into heaven, but intrusted him also 
with his counsels. So ungrateful, notwithstanding, did Ix- 
ion become, as to attempt the chastity of Juno herself. 
This so incensed Jupiter that the angry deity hurled him 
into Tartarus, and fixed him on a wheel encompassed 
with serpents, which was doomed to revolve without inter- 
mission. 

SALMONEUS, king of Elis, was son of iEolus, (not 
he who was king of the winds, but another of the name) 
and Anarete. Not satisfied with an earthly crown, Salmo- 
neus panted after divine honors ; and, in order that the 
people might esteem him a god, he built a brazen bridge 
over the city, and drove his chariot along it, imitating, by 



MYTHOLOGY. 125 

this noise, Jupiter's thunder ; at the same time throwing 
flaming torches among the spectators below, to represent 
his lightning, by which many were killed. Jupiier, in 
resentment of this insolence, precipitated the ambitious 
mortal into hell, where, according to Virgil, iEneas saw 
him. 

SISIPHUS, or SISYPHUS, a descendant of ^Eolus, 
married Merope, one of the Pleiades, who bore him Glau- 
cus. He resided at Ephyra, in Peloponnesus, and was con- 
spicuous for his craft. Some say he was a Trojan secreta- 
ry, who was punished for discovering secrets of state ; 
whilst others contend that he was a notorious robber killed 
by Theseus. However, all the poets agree that he was 
punished in Tartarus for his crimes, by rolling a great stone 
to the top of a hill, which constantly recoiling and rolling 
down again, incessantly renewed his fatigue, and rendered 
his labor endless. 

Ovid, in one passage, seems to describe Sisyphus as bend- 
ing under the weight of a vast stone ; " but the more com- 
mon way of speaking of his punishment," says the author 
of Poly metis, '* agrees with the fine description of him in 
Homer, where we see him laboring to heave the stone that 
lies on his shoulders up against the side of a steep moun- 
tain, and which always rolls precipitately down again 
before he can get it to rest upon the top. Lucretius makes 
him only an emblem of the ambitious ; as Horace too 
seems to make Tantalus only an emblem of the cove- 
tous." 

BELIDES, or DANAIDES : They were the fifty daugh- 
ters of Danaus, son of Belus, surnamed the ancient. Some 
quarrel having arisen between him and Egyptus his broth- 
er, it determined Danaus on his voyage into Greece ; but 
Egyptus having fifty sons, proposed a reconciliation, by mar- 
rying them to his brother's daughters. The proposal was 
agreed to, and the nuptials were to be celebrated with sin- 
gular splendor, when Danaus, either in resentment of for- 
mer injuries, or being told by the oracle that one of his sons- 
in-law should destroy him, gave to each of his daughters a 
dagger, with an injunction to stab her husband. They all 
executed the order but Hypermnestra, the eldest, who spar- 
ed the life of Lyncseus. These Belldes, for their cruelty, 
were consigned to the infernal regions, there to draw water 
in sieves from a well, till they had filled, by that means, a 
vessel full of holes, 



126 MYTHOLOGY. 

TANTALUS, king of Phrygia, was the son of Jupiter 
and PJota. Whether it was for this cause, the violation of 
hospitality, or for his pride, his boasting, his want of secre- 
cy, his insatiable covetousness, his imparting nectar and 
ambrosia to mortals, or for all of them together, since he 
has been accused of them all, Tantalus was thrown into 
Tartarus, where the poets have assigned him a variety of tor- 
ments. Some represent a great stone as hanging over his 
head, which he apprehended to be continually falling, and 
was ever in motion to avoid it. Others describe him as af- 
flicted with constant thirst and hunger, though the most 
delicious banquets were exposed to his view ; one of the 
Furies terrifying him with her torch whenever he approach- 
ed towards them. Some exhibit him standing to the chin 
in water, and whenever he stooped to quench his thirst, the 
water as constantly eluding his lip. Others, with fruits 
luxuriously growing around him, which he no sooner ad- 
vanced to touch, than the wind blew them into the clouds. 



CHAPTER X. 

Monsters of Hell. 

HARPYIiE, or HARPIES, were three in number, their 
names, Celseno, Aello, and Ocypete. The ancients looked 
on them as a sort of Genii, or Daemons. They had the 
faces of virgins, the ears of bears, the bodies of vultures, 
human arms and feet, and long claws, hooked like the 
talons of carnivorous birds. Phineas, king of Arcadia, be- 
ing a prophet, and revealing the mysteries of Jupiter to 
mortals, was by that deity struck blind, and so tormented 
by the Harpies that he was ready to perish for hunger ; 
they devouring whatever was set before him, till the sons of 
Boreas, who attended Jason in his expedition to Colchis, 
delivered the good old king, and drove these monsters to 
the islands called Strophades : compelling them to swear 
never more to return. 

The Harpies, according to the ingenious Abbe la Pluche, 
had their origin in Egypt. He further observes, in respect 
to them, that during the months of April, May, and June, 
especially the two latter, Egypt being very subject to tem- 
pests, which laid waste their olive grounds, and carried 



MYTHOLOGY, 



127 



thither numerous swarms of grasshoppers, and other troub- 
lesome insects from the shores of the Red Sea, the Egyp- 
tians gave to their emblematic figures of these months a 
female face, with the bodies and claws of birds, calling 
them Harop, or winged destroyers. This solution of the 
fable corresponds with the opinion of Le Clerc, who takes 
the harpies to have been a swarm of locusts, the word Arbi, 
whence Harpy is formed, signifying, in their language, a 
locust. 

GORGONS were three in number, and daughters of 
Phorcus or Porcys, by his sister Ceto. Their names were 
Medusa, Euryale, and Stheno, and they are represented as 
having scales on their bodies, brazen hands, golden wings, 
tusks like boars, and snakes for hair. The last distinction, 
however, is confined by Ovid to Medusa. 

According to some mythologists, Perseus having been 
sent against Medusa by the gods, was supplied by Mercury 
with a falchion, by Minerva with a mirror, and by Pluto 
with a helmet, which rendered the wearer invisible. Thus 
equipped, through the aid of winged sandals, he steered 
his course towards Tartessus, where, finding the object of 
his search, by the reflection of his mirror, he was enabled 
to aim his weapon, without meeting her eye, (for her look 
would have turned him to stone) and at one blow struck off 
her head. When Perseus had slain Medusa, the other sis- 
ters pursued him, but he escaped from their sight by means 
of his helmet. They were afterwards thrown into hell. 

SPHINX was a female monster, daughter of Typhon 
and Echidna. She had the head, face, and breasts of a 
woman, the wings of a bird, the claws of a lion, and the 
body of a dog. She lived on mount Sphincius, infested 
the country about Thebes, and assaulted passengers, by pro- 
posing dark and enigmatical questions to them, which if 
they did not explain, she tore them in pieces. Sphinx 
made horrible ravages in the neighborhood of Thebes, till 
Creon, then king of that city, published an edict over all 
Greece, promising that if any one should explain the rid- 
dle of Sphinx, he would give him his own sister Iocasta in 
marriage. 

The riddle was this, " What animal is that which goes 
upon four feet in the morning, upon two at noon, and upon 
three at night?" Many had endeavored to explain this 
riddle, but failing in the attempt, were destroyed by the 
monster ; till CEdipus undertook the solution, and thus ex- 



128 MYTHOLOGY. 

plained it : "The animal is man, who in his infancy creeps, 
and so may be said to go on four feet ; when he gets into 
the noon of life, he walks on two feet ; bat when he grows 
old, or declines into the evening of his days, he uses the sup- 
port of a staff, and thus may be said to walk on three feet." 
The Sphinx being enraged at this explanation, cast herself 
headlong from a rock and died. 



CHAPTER XI. 

Dii indigetes, or Heroes who received divine Honors after 
Death. 

HERCULES was the son of Jupiter by Alcmena, wife 
of Amphitryon, king of Thebes, and is said to have been 
born in that city about 1280 years before the Christian era. 
During his infancy Juno sent two serpents to kill him in 
his cradle, but the undaunted child grasping one in either 
hand, immediately strangled them both. As he grew up, 
he discovered an uncommon degree of vigor both of body 
and of mind. Nor were his extraordinary endowments 
neglected ; for his education was intrusted to the greatest 
masters. The tasks imposed on him by Eurystheus, on ac- 
count of the danger and difficulty which attended their ex- 
ecution, received the name of the Labors of Hercides, and 
are commonly reckoned, (at least the most material of them) 
to have been twelve. 

The first was his engagement with Cleonsean lion, which 
furious animal, it is said, fell from the orb of the moon by 
Juno's direction, and was invunerable. It infested the 
woods between Phlius and Cleone, and committed uncom- 
mon ravages. The hero attacked it both with his arrows 
and club, but in vain, till, perceiving his error, he tore asun- 
der its jaws with his hands. 

The second labor was his conquest, of the LemEean hy- 
dra, a formidable serpent or monster which harbored in 
the fens of Lerna, and infected the region of Argos with 
his poisonous exhalations. This seems to have been one 
of the most difficult tasks in which Hercules was ever en- 
gaged. The number of heads assigned the hydra is vari- 
ous ; some give him seven, some nine, others fifty, and Ovid 
an hundred ; but all authors agree that when one was cut 
off, another sprung forth in its place, unless the wound was 



MYTHOLOGY. 129 

immediately cauterized. Hercules, not discouraged, at- 
tacked him, and having ordered Iolas, his friend and com- 
panion, to cut down wood sufficient for fire-brands, he no 
sooner had cut off a head than he applied these brands to 
the wounds ; by which means searing them up, he obtained 
a complete victory. 

The third labor was to bring alive to Eurystheus an 
enormous wild boar which ravaged the forest of Erymanthus 
in Arcadia, and had been sent to Phocis by Diana to pun- 
ish JEneas, for neglecting her sacrifices. Hercules brought 
him bound to Eurystheus. There is nothing descriptive of 
this exploit in any of the Roman poets. 

The fourth labor was the capture of the Maenalaean stag. 
Eurystheus, after repeated proofs of the strength and valor 
of Hercules, resolved to try his agility, and commanded 
him to take a wild stag that frequented mount Maenalus, 
which had brazen feet and golden horns. As this animal 
was sacred to Diana, Hercules durst not wound him ; but 
though it were noeasy matter to run him down, yet this, after 
pursuing him on foot for a year, the hero at last effected. 

The fifth labor of Hercules consisted in killing the Stym- 
phalides, birds so called from frequenting the lake Stym- 
phalis in Arcadia, which preyed upon human flesh, having 
wings, beaks, and talons of iron. Some say Hercules de- 
stroyed these birds with his arrows, others that Pallas sent 
him brazen rattles, made by Vulcan, the sound of which so 
terrified them, that they took shelter in the island of Aretia. 
There are authors who suppose these birds called Stympha- 
lides, to have been a gang of desperate banditti who had 
their haunts near the lake Stymphalis. 

The sixth labor was his cleansincr the stable of Auo-eas. 
This Augeas, king of Elis, had a stable intolerable from 
the stench occasioned by the filth it contained, which may 
be readily imagined from the fact that it sheltered three 
thousand oxen, and had not been cleansed for thirty years. 
This place Eurystheus ordered Hercules to clear in one day, 
and Augeas promised, if he performed the task, to give 
him a tenth part of the cattle. Hercules, by turning the 
course of the river Alpheus through the stable, executed 
his design, which Augeas seeing, refused to fulfil his prom- 
ise. The hero, to punish his perfidy, slew Augeas with his 
arrows, and gave his kingdom to his son Phyleus, who ab- 
horred his father's treachery. 

The seventh labor was the capture of the Cretan bull. 
12 



130 MYTHOLOGY. 

Minos, king of Crete, having acquired the dominion of the 
Grecian seas, paid no greater honor to Neptune than to the 
other gods, wherefore the deity, in resentment of this in- 
gratitude, sent a bull, which breathed fire from his nostrils, 
to destroy the people of Crete. Hercules took this furious 
animal, and brought him to Eurystheus, who, because the 
bull was sacred, let him loose into the country of Mara- 
thon, where he was afterwards slain by Theseus. 

The eighth labor of Hercules, was the killing of Dio- 
medes and his horses. That infamous tyrant was king of 
Thrace, and son of Mars and Cyrene. Among other things 
he is said to have driven in his war-chariot four furious 
horses, which, to render the more impetuous, he used to 
feed on the flesh and blood of his subjects. Hercules is 
said to have freed the world from this barbarous prince, and 
to have killed both him and his horses, as is signified in 
some drawings, and said expressly by some of the poets. 
Some report that the tyrant was given by Hercules as a prey 
to his own horses. 

The ninth labor of Hercules was his combat with Gery- 
on, king of Spain. Geryon is generally represented with 
three bodies agreeable to the expressions used of him by 
the poets, and sometimes with three heads. He had a breed 
of oxen of a purple color, (which devoured all strangers 
cast to them) guarded by a dog with two heads, a dragon 
with seven, besides a very watchful and severe keeper. 
Hercules, however, killed the monarch and all his guards, 
and carried the oxen to Gades, whence he brought them to 
Eurystheus. Some mythologists explain this fable by say- 
ing that Geryon was king of three islands, now called Ma- 
jorca, Minorca, and Ivica, on which account he was fabled 
to be triple bodied and headed. 

The tenth labor of Hercules was his conquest of Hip- 
poly te queen of the Amazons. His eleventh labor consist- 
ed in dragging Cerebus from the infernal regions into day. 
The twelfth and last was killing the serpent, and gaining 
the golden fruit in the gardens of the Hesperides. 

Hercules, after his conquests in Spain, having made him- 
self famous in the country of the Celtee or Gauls, is said 
to have there founded a large and populous city, which he 
called Alesia. His favorite wife was Dejanira, whose jeal- 
ousy most fatally occasioned his death. Hercules having 
subdued CEchalia and killed Eurytus the king, carried off 
the fair Iole, his daughter, with whom Dejanira suspecting 



MYTHOLOGY. 131 

him to be in love, sent him the garment of Nessus, the Cen- 
taur, as a remedy to recover his affections ; this garment, 
however, having been pierced with an arrow dipped in the 
blood of the Lernaean hydra, whilst worn by Nessus, con- 
tracted a poison from his blood incurable by art. No soon- 
er, therefore, was it put on by Hercules than he was seized 
with a delirious fever, attended with the most excruciating 
torments. Unable to support his pains, he retired to mount 
OEta, where, raising a pile, and setting it on fire, he threw 
himself upon it, and was consumed in the flames, after hav- 
ing killed in his phrenzy Lycus his friend. His arrows he 
bequeathed to Philoctetes, who interred his remains. 

After his death he was deified by his father Jupiter. Dio- 
dorus Siculus relates that he was no sooner ranked amongst 
the gods than Juno, who had so violently persecuted him 
whilst on earth, adopted him for her son, and loved him 
with the tenderness of a mother. Hercules was afterwards 
married to Hebe, goddess of youth, his half sister, with all 
the splendor of a celestial wedding ; but he refused the hon- 
or which Jupiter designed him, of being ranked with the 
twelve gods, alleging there w r as no vacancy; and that it 
would be unreasonable to degrade any other god for the pur- 
pose of admitting him. 

Both the Greeks and Romans honored him as a god, and as 
such erected to him temples. His victims were bulls and 
lambs, on account of his preserving the flocks from wolves; 
that is, delivering men from tyrants and robbers. He was 
worshipped by the ancient Latins under the name of Dius, 
or Divus Fidius, that is, the guarantee or protector of faith 
promised or sworn. They had a custom of calling this de- 
ity to witness by a sort of oath expressed in these terms, 
Me Dius Fidius ! that is, so help me the god Fidius ! or 
Hercules. 

PERSEUS was the son of Jupiter and Danae, daughter 
of Acrisius king of Argos. When Perseus was grown up, 
Polydectes, who was enamored of his mother, finding him 
an obstacle to their union, contrived to send him on an 
exploit, which he hoped would be fatal to him. This was 
to bring him the head of Medusa, one of the Gorgons. In 
his expedition Perseus was favored by the gods ; Mercury 
equipped him with a scymetar, and the wings from his heels ; 
Pallas lent him a shield which reflected objects like a mir- 
ror ; and Pluto granted him his helmet, which rendered him 
invisible. In this manner he flew to Tartessus in Spain, 



132 MYTHOLOGY. 

where, directed by the reflection of Medusa in his mirror, 
he cut off her head, and brought it to Pallas. From the 
blood arose the winged horse Pegasus. 

After this the hero passed into Mauritania, where repair- 
ing to the court of Atlas, that monarch ordered him to re- 
tire, with menaces, in case of disobedience ; but Perseus, pre- 
senting his shield, with the dreadful head of Medusa, chang- 
ed him into the mountain which still bears his name. In 
his return to Greece he visited Ethiopia, mounted on Pega- 
sus, and delivered Andromeda, daughter of Cepheus, (who 
was exposed on a rock of that coast to be devoured by a 
monster of the deep) on condition he might make her his 
wife : but Phineas, her uncle, sought to prevent him, by at- 
tempting, with a party, to carry off the bride. The at- 
tempt, notwithstanding, was rendered abortive ; for the he- 
ro, by showing them the head of the Gorgon, at once turn- 
ed them to stone. 

Perseus having completed these exploits, was desirous of 
revisiting home, and accordingly set off for that purpose 
with his wife and his mother. Arriving on the coast of Pelo- 
ponnesus, and learning that Teutamias, king of Larissa, 
was then celebrating games in honor of his father, Perseus, 
wishing to exhibit his skill at the quoit, of which he has 
been deemed the inventor, resolved to go thither. In this 
contest, however, he was so unfortunate as to kill Acrisius, 
the father of his mother, w r ho, on the report that Perseus 
was returning to the place of his nativity, had fled to the 
court of Teutamias his friend, to avoid the denunciation of 
the oracle, which had induced him to exercise such cruelty 
on his offspring. At what time Perseus died is unknown; 
but all agree that divine honors were paid him. He had 
statues at Mycenae and in Seriphos. A temple was erected 
to him in Athens, and an altar in it consecrated to Dictys. 

ACHILLES was the offspring of a goddess. Thetis 
bore him to Peleus, king of Thessaly, and was so fond of 
him, that she charged herself with his education. By day 
she fed him with ambrosia, and by night covered him with 
celestial fire, to render him immortal. She also dipped him 
in the waters of Styx, by which his whole body became in- 
vulnerable, except that part of his heel by which she held 
him. He was afterwards committed to the care of Chiron 
the Centaur, who fed him with honey, and the marrow of 
lions and wild boars ; whence he obtained that strength of 
body and greatness of soul which qualified him for martial toil. 



MYTHOLOGY. , 133 

When the Greeks undertook the siege of Troy, Calchas 
the diviner, and priest of Apollo, foretold that the city should 
not be taken without the help of Achilles. Thetis, his 
mother, who knew that Achilles, if he went to the siege of 
Troy, would never return, clothed him in female apparel, 
and concealed him among the maidens at the court of Ly- 
comedes, king of the island of Scyros. But this stratagem 
proved ineffectual; for Calchas having informed the Greeks 
where Achilles lay in disguise, they sent Ulysses to the court 
of Lycomedes, where, under the appearance of a merchant, 
he was introduced to the king's daughters, and while they 
were studiously intent on viewing his toys, Achilles employ- 
ed himself in examining an helmet, which the cunning pol- 
itician had thrown in his way. 

Achilles thus detected, was prevailed on to go to Troy, 
after Thetis had furnished hiin with impenetrable armor 
made by Vulcan. Thither he led the troops of Thessaly, 
in fifty ships, and distinguished himself by a number of 
heroic actions ; but being disgusted with Agamemnon for 
the loss of Briseis, he retired fro»x* the camp, and resolved 
to have no further concern in the war. In this resolution 
he continued inexorable, till news was brought him that 
Hector had killed his friend Patroclus; to avenge his death 
he not, only slew Hector, but fastened the corpse to his char- 
iot, dragged it round the walls of Troy, offered many indig- 
nities to it, and sold it at last to Priam his father. 

Authors are much divided on the manner of Achilles' 
death ; some relate that he was slain by Apollo, or that this 
god enabled Paris to kill him, by directing the arrow to his 
heel, the only part in which he was vulnerable. Others 
again say, that Paris murdered him treacherously, in the 
temple of Apollo, whilst treating about his marriage with 
Polyxena, daughter to king Priam. 

Though this tradition concerning his death be commonly 
received, yet Homer plainly enough insinuates that Achil- 
les died fighting for his country, and represents the Greeks 
as maintaining a bloody battle about his body, which lasted 
a whole day. Achilles having been lamented by Thetis, the 
Nereids, and the Muses, was buried on the promontory of 
Sigseum ; and after Troy was captured, the Greeks endeav- 
ored to appease his manes by sacrificing Polyxena, on his 
tomb, as his ghost had requested. 

The oracle at Dodona decreed him divine honors, and 
ordered annual victims to be offered at the place of his sep- 
12* 



134 MYTHOLOGY. 

ulture. In pursuance of this, the Thessalians brought hith- 
er yearly two bulls, one black, the other white, crowned 
with wreaths of flowers, and water from the river Sper- 
chius. It is said that Alexander, seeing his tomb, honor- 
ed it by placing a crown upon it, at the same time crying 
out " that Achilles was happy in having, during his life, 
such a friend as Patroclus, and after his death, a poet like 
Homer." 

ATLAS was son of Japetus and Clymene, and brother 
of Prometheus, according to most authors; or, as others re- 
late, son of Japetus by Asia, daughter of Oceanus. He 
had many children. Of his sons, the most famous were 
Hesperus (whom some call his brother) and Hyas. By his 
wife Pleione he had seven daughters, who went by the gen- 
eral names of Atlantides, or Pleiades ; and by his wife JEc 
thra he had also seven other daughters, who bore the com- 
mon appellation of the Hyades. 

According to Hyginus, Atlas having assisted the giants in 
their war against Jupiter, was doomed by the victorious 
god, as a punishment, lo sustain the weight of the heavens. 
Ovid, however, represents him as a powerful and wealthy 
monarch, proprietor of the gardens of the Hesperides, which 
bore golden fruit; but that being warned by the oracle of 
Themis that he should suffer some great injury from a son 
of Jupiter, he strictly forbade all foreigners access to his 
presence. Perseus, however, having the courage to appear 
before him, was ordered to retire, with strong menaces in 
case of disobedience ; but the hero presenting his shield, 
with the dreadful head of Medusa, turned him into the 
mountain which still bears his name. 

The Abbe la Pluche has given a very clear and ingen- 
ious explication of this fable. Of all nations the Egyptians 
had, with the greatest assiduity, cultivated astronomy. To 
point out the difficulties attending the study of this science, 
they represented it by an image bearing a globe or sphere 
on its back, which they called Atlas, a word signifying great 
toil or labor ; but the word also signifying support, the 
Phoenicians, led by the representation, took it in this sense, 
and in their voyages to Mauritania, seeing the high moun- 
tains of that couutry covered with snow, and losing their 
tops in the clouds, gave them the name of Atlas, and thus 
produced the fable by which the symbol of astronomy used 
among the Egyptians became a Mauritanian king, trans- 
formed into a mountain, whose head supports the heavens. 



MYTHOLOGY 135 

The rest of the fable is equally obvious to explanation. 
The annual inundations of the Nile obliged the Egyptians 
to be very exact in observing the motions of the heavenly 
bodies. The Hyades, or Tluades, took their name from the 
figure V, which they form in the head of Taurus. The 
Pleiades were a remarkable constellation and of great use 
to the Egyptians in regulating the seasons : hence they be- 
came the daughters of Atlas; and Orion, who arose just as 
they set, was called their lover- 

By the golden apples that grew in the gardens of the Iles- 
perides, the Phoenicians expressed the rich and beneficial 
commerce they had in the Mediterranean, which being car- 
ried on during three months only of the year, gave rise to 
the fable of the Hesperian sisters. The most usual way of 
representing Atlas, among the ancient artists, was as sup- 
porting a globe ; for the old poets commonly refer to this 
attitude in speaking of him. 

PROMETHEUS was son of Japetus, but it is doubtful 
whether his mother were Asia, or Themis. Having incur- 
red the displeasure of Jupiter, either for stealing some of 
the celestial fire, or for forming a man of clay, Jupiter, in 
resentment, commanded Vulcan to make a woman of clay, 
which, when finished, w r as introduced into the assembly of 
the gods, each of whom bestowed on her some additional 
charm or perfection. Venus gave her beauty, Pallas wis- 
dom, Juno riches, Mercury taught her eloquence, and Apol- 
lo music. From all these accomplishments she was styled 
Pandora, that is, loaded with gifts and accomplishments, and 
was the first of her sex. 

Jupiter, to complete his designs, presented her a box, in 
which he had enclosed age, disease, war, famine, pestilence, 
discord, envy, calumny, and, in short, all the evils and vices 
with which he intended to afflict the world. Thus equipped, 
Pandora was sent to Prometheus, who, being on his guard 
against the mischief designed him, declined accepting the 
box ; but Epimetheus, his brother, though forewarned of 
the danger, had less resolution ; for, being enamored of 
the beauty of Pandora, he married her, and opened the fa- 
tal treasure, when immediately flew abroad the contents, 
which soon overspread the world, hope only remaining at 
the bottom. 

Prometheus escaping the evil which the god designed him, 
and Jupiter not being appeased, Mercury and Vulcan were 
despatched by him to seize Prometheus, and chain him on 



136 MYTHOLOGY. 

Mount Caucasus, where a vulture, the offspring of Typhon 
and Echidna, was commissioned to prey upon his liver, 
which, that his torment might be endless, was constantly 
renewed by night in proportion to its increase by day ; but 
the vulture being soon destroyed by Hercules, Prometheus 
was released. Others say, that Jupiter restored Prometheus 
to freedom, for discovering the conspiracy of Saturn, his 
father, and dissuading his intended marriage with Thetis. 

Nicander, to this fable, offers an additional one. He tells 
us, that when mankind had received the fire from Prome- 
theus, some ungrateful men discovered the theft to Jupiter, 
who rewarded them with the gift of perpetual youth. This 
present they put on the back of an ass, which stopping at 
a fountain to quench his thirst, was prevented by a water- 
snake vvhich would not suffer him to drink till he gave him 
his burden ; hence the serpent renews his youth upon chang- 
ing his skin. 

Prometheus was esteemed the inventor of many useful 
arts. He made man of the mixture and temperament of 
ail the elements, gave him strength of body, vigor of mind, 
and the peculiar qualities of all creatures, as the craft of 
the fox, the courage of the lion, &c. He had an altar in 
the academy of Athens in common with Vulcan and Pal- 
las. In his statues he holds a sceptre in the right hand. 

Several explanations have been given of this fable. 
Prometheus, whose name is derived from a Greek word, 
signifying foresight and providence, was conspicuous for 
that quality ; and because he reduced mankind, before 
rude and savage, to a state of culture and improvement, he 
was feigned to have made them from clay : being a diligent 
observer of the motions of the heavenly bodies from Mount 
Caucasus, it was fabled that he was chained there : having 
discovered the method of striking fire from the flint, or 
perhaps, the nature of lightning, it was pretended that he 
stole fire from the gods : and, because he applied himself 
to study with intenseness, they imagined that a vulture prey- 
ed continually on his liver. 

There is another solution of this fable, analogous to the 
preceding. According to Pliny, Prometheus was the first 
who instituted sacrifices. Being expelled his dominions 
by Jupiter, he fled to Scythia, where he retired to Mount 
Caucasus, either to make astronomical calculations or to in- 
dulge his melancholy for the loss of his dominions, which 
occasioned the fable of the vulture or eagle feeding on 



MYTHOLOGY. 137 

his liver. As he was the first inventor of forging metals by 
fire, he was said to have stolen that element from heaven; 
and, as the first introduction of agriculture and navigation 
had been ascribed to him, he was celebrated as forming a 
living man from an inanimate substance. 

AMPHION, king of Thebes, son of Jupiter and Anti- 
ope, was instructed in the use of the lyre by Mercury, and 
became so great a proficient, that he is reported to have 
built the walls of Thebes by the power of his harmony, 
which caused the listening stones to ascend voluntarily. He 
married Niobe, daughter of Tantalus, whose insult to Di- 
ana occasioned the loss of their children by the arrows of 
Apollo and Diana. The unhappy father, attempting to re- 
venge himself by the destruction of the temple of Apollo, 
was punished with the loss of his sight and skill, and thrown 
into the infernal regions. 

ORPHEUS, son of Apollo by the Muse Calliope, was 
born in Thrace, and resided near Mount Rhodope, where 
he married Eurydice, a princess of that country. Aris- 
tasus, a neighboring prince, fell desperately in love with 
her, but she flying from his violence, was killed by the bite 
of a serpent. Her disconsolate husband was so affected 
at his loss, that he descended by the way of Taenarus to 
hell, in order to recover his beloved wife. As music and 
poetry were to Orpheus hereditary talents, he exerted them 
so powerfully in the infernal regions, that Pluto and Pros- 
erpine, touched with compassion, restored to him his con- 
sort on condition that he should not look back upon her 
till they came to the light of the world. His impatience, 
however, prevailing, he broke the condition, and lost Eury- 
dice forever. 

Whilst Orpheus was among the shades, he sang the 
praises of all the gods but Bacchus, whom he accidentally 
omitted ; to revenge this affront, Bacchus inspired the Mae- 
nades, his priestesses, with such fury, that they tore Orph- 
eus to pieces, and scattered his limbs about the fields. His 
head was cast into the river Hebrus, and (together with his 
harp) was carried by the tide to Lesbos, where it after- 
wards delivered oracles. The harp, with seven strings, rep- 
resenting the seven planets, which had been given him by 
Apollo, was taken up into heaven, and graced with nine 
stars by the nine Muses. Orpheus himself was changed 
into a swan. He left a son called Methon, who founded in 
Thrace a city of his own name. 



138 



MYTHOLOGY. 



It is certain that Orpheus may be placed as the earliest 
poet of Greece, where he first introduced astronomy, divin- 
ity, music and poetry ; all which he had learned in Egypt. 
He introduced also the rites of Bacchus, which from him 
were called Orphica. He was a person of most consummate 
knowledge, and the wisest, as well as the most diligent 
scholar of Linus. 

If we search for the origin of this fable, we must again 
have recourse to Egypt, the mother-country of fiction. In 
July, when the sun entered Leo, the Nile overflowed all the 
plains. To denote the public joy at seeing the inundation 
rise to its due height, the Egyptians exhibited a youth play- 
ing on the lyre, or the sistrum, and sitting by a tame lion. 
When the waters did not increase as they should, the Horus 
was represented stretched on the back of a lion, as dead. 
This symbol they called Oreph, or Orpheus, (Trom oreph, 
the back part of the head) to signify that agriculture was 
then quite unseasonable and dormant. 

The songs with which the people amused themselves dur- 
ing this period of inactivity, for want of exercise, were call- 
ed the hymns of Orpheus ; and as husbandry revived im- 
mediately after, it gave rise to the fable of Orpheus's re- 
turning from hell. The Isis placed near this Horus, they 
called Eurydice, (from eri, alion, and daca, tamed, is form- 
ed Eridica, Eurydice, or the lion tamed, i. e. the violence 
of the inundation overcome), and as the Greeks took all 
these figures in the literal, not in the emblematical sense, 
they made Eurydice the wife of Orpheus. 

OSIRIS, son of Jupiter and Niobe, was king of the 
Argives many years ; but, being instigated by the desire 
of glory, he left his kingdom to his brother JEgialus, and 
went into Egypt, in search of a new name and kingdom 
there. The Egyptians were not so much overcome by the 
valor of Osiris, as obliged to him for his kindness towards 
them. Having conferred the greatesl benefits on his sub- 
jects, by civilizing their manners, and instructing them in 
husbandry and other useful arts, he made the necessary dis- 
position of his affairs, committed the regency to Isis, and set 
out with a body of forces in order to civilize the rest of 
mankind. This he performed more by the power of per- 
suasion, and the soothing arts of music and poetry, than by 
the terror of his arms. 

In his absence, Typhosus, the giant, whom historians call 
the brother of Osiris, formed a conspiracy to dethrone him j 



MYTHOLOGY. 139 

for which end, at the return of Osiris into Egypt, he in- 
vited him to a feast, at the conclusion of which a chest of 
exquisite workmanship was brought in, and offered to him 
who, when laid down in it, should be found to fit it the 
best. Osiris, not suspecting a trick to be played him, got 
into the chest, and the cover being immediately shut upon 
him, this good but unfortunate prince was thus thrown into 
the Nile. 

When the news of this transaction reached Coptus, 
where Isis his wife then was, she cut her hair, and in deep 
mourning went every where in search of the dead body. 
This was at length discovered, and concealed by her at 
Butus ; but Typhosus, while hunting by moonlight, having 
found it there, tore it into many pieces, which he scattered 
abroad. Isis then traversed the lakes and watery places in 
a boat made of the papyrus, seeking the mangled parts of 
Osiris, and where she found any, there she buried them ; 
hence the many tombs ascribed to Osiris. 

Plutarch seems evidently to prove that the Egyptians 
worshipped the Sun under the name of Osiris. His rea- 
sons are : 1. Because the images of Osiris were always 
clothed in a shining garment, to represent the rays and 
light of the sun. 2. In their hymns, composed in honor of 
Osiris, they prayed to him who reposes himself in the bo- 
som of the sun. 3. After the autumnal equinox, they cel- 
ebrated a feast called, The disappearing of Osiris, by 
which is plainly meant the absence and distance ot the sun. 
4. In the month of Novemher they led a cow seven times 
round the temple of Osiris, intimating thereby, that in sev- 
en months the sun would return to the summer solstice. 

He is represented sitting upon a throne, crowned with a 
mitre full of small orbs, to intimate his superiority over all 
the globe. The gourd upon the mitre implies his action 
and influence upon moisture, which, and the Nile particu- 
larly, was termed by the Egyptians, the efflux of Osiris. 
The lower part of his habit is made up of descending rays, 
and his body is surrounded with orbs. His right hand is 
extended in a commanding attitude, and his left holds a 
thyrsus or staff of the papyrus, pointing out the principle of 
humidity, and the fertility thence flowing, under his direc- 
tion. 

yESCULAPIUS. The name of yEscuIapius, whom the 
Greeks called 'AraAuVu?, appears to have been foreign, and 
derived from the oriental languages. Being honored as a 
god in Phoenicia and Egypt, his worship passed into Greece, 



140 MYTHOLOGY. 

and was established, first at Epidaurus, a city of Pelopon- 
nesus, bordering on the sea, where, probably, some colo- 
nies first settled; a circumstance sufficient for the Greeks 
to give out that this god was a native of Greece. 

Not to mention all we are told of his parents, it will be 
enough to observe, that the opinion generally received in 
Greece, made him the son of Apollo by Coronis, daughter 
of Phlegyas ; and indeed the Messenians, who consulted 
tlie oracle of Delphi to know where iEsculapius was born, 
and of what parents, were told by the oracle, or more prop- 
erly Apollo, that he himself was his father ; that Coronis 
was his mother, and that their son was born at Epidaurus. 

Phlegyas, the most warlike man of his age, having gone 
into Peloponnesus under pretence of travelling, but, in 
truth, to spy into the condition of the country, carried his 
daughter Coronis thither, who, to conceal her situation from 
her father, went to Epidaurus : there she was delivered of 
a son, whom she exposed upon a mountain, called to this 
day Mount Titthion, or of the breast ; but before this ad- 
venture, Myrthion, from the myrtles that grew upon it. 

The reason of this change of name was, that the child, 
having been here abandoned, was suckled by one of those 
goats of the mountain, which the dog of Aristhenes the 
goat-herd guarded. When Aristhenes came to review his 
flock, ' 3 found a she-goat and his dog missing, and going 
in search of them discovered the child. Upon approaching 
to lift him from the earth, he perceived his head encircled 
with fiery rays, which made him believe the child to be of 
divine origin. 

As Kogo'i/jj in the Greek language signifies a crow, hence 
another fable arose importing, as we see in Lucian, that 
iEsculapius had sprung from an egg of a bird, under the 
figure of a serpent. Whatever these fictions may mean, 
iEsculapius being removed from the mount on which he 
was exposed, was nursed by Trigo or Trigone, who was 
probably the wife of the goat-herd that found him ; and 
when he was capable of improving by Chiron, Phlegyas (to 
whom he had doubtless been returned) put him under the 
Centaur's tuition. 

Being of a quick and lively genius, he made such pro- 
gress as soon to become not only a great physician, but at 
length to be reckoned the god and inventor of medicine ; 
though the Greeks, not very consistent in the history of 
those early ages, gave to Apis, son of Phoroneus, the glory 
of having discovered the healing art. ^Esculapius accompa- 



MYTHOLOGY. 141 

nied Jason in his expedition to Colchis, and in his medical 
capacity was of great service to the Argonauts. Within a 
short time after his death he was deified, and received di- 
vine honors : some add, that he formed the celestial sign, 
Serpentarius. 

As the Greeks always carried the encomiums of their great 
men beyond the truth, they feigned that iEsculapius was so 
expert in medicine, as not only to cure the sick, but even 
to raise the dead. <§vid says he did this by Hippolitus, and 
Julian says the same of Tyndarus : that Pluto cited him 
before the tribunal of Jupiter, and complained that his em- 
pire was considerably diminished and in danger of becom- 
ing desolate, from the cures ^Esculapius performed ; so that 
Jupiter in wrath slew iEsculapius with a thunderbolt ; to 
which they added that Apollo, enraged at the death of his 
son, killed the Cyclops who forged Jupiter's thunder-bolts : 
a fiction which obviously signifies only, that iEsculapius 
had carried his art very far, and that he cured diseases be- 
lieved to be desperate. 

iEsculapius is always represented under the figure of a 
grave old man wrapped up in a cloak, having sometimes up- 
on his head the caldthus of Serapis, with a staff in his hand, 
which is commonly wreathed about with a serpent ; some- 
times again with a serpent in one hand, and a patera in the 
other; sometimes leaning upon a pillar, round whicui a ser- 
pent also twines. The cock, a bird consecrated to this god, 
whose vigilance represents that quality which physicians 
ought to have, is sometimes at the feet of his statues. Soc- 
rates, we know, when dying, said to those who stood around 
him in his last moments, " We owe a cock to ^Esculapius ; 
give it without delay." 

ULYSSES, king of Ithaca, was the son of Laertes, or 
Laertius and Anticlea. His wife Penelope, daughter of Ica- 
rius brother of Tyndarus king of Sparta, was highly famed 
for her prudence and virtue ; and being unwilling that the 
Trojan war should part them, Ulysses to avoid the expedition, 
pretended to be mad, and not only joined different beasts 
to the same plough, but sowed also the furrows with salt. 

Palamedes, however, suspecting the frenzy to be as- 
sumed, threw Telemachus, then an infant, in the way of 
the plough, to try if his father would alter its course. This 
stratagem succeeded ; for when Ulysses came to the child 
he turned off from the spot, in consequence of which Pal- 
amedes compelled him to take part in the war. He accord - 
13 



142 MYTHOLOGY. 

ingly sailed with twelve ships, and was signally serviceable 
to the Greeks. 

To him the capture of Troy is chiefly to be ascribed, 
since by him the obstacles were removed, which had so 
long prevented it. For as Ulysses himself was detected by 
Palamedes, so he in his turn detected Achilles, who, to 
avoid engaging in the same war, had concealed himself in 
the habits of a woman, at the court of Lycomedes, king of 
Scyros. Ulysses there discovered him, and as it had been 
foretold that without Achilles Troy could not be taken, 
thence drew him to the siege. 

He also obtained the arrows of Hercules, from Philocte- 
tes, and carried off that hero from the scene of his retreat. 
He brought away also the ashes of Laomedon, which were 
preserved in Troy on the Scosan gate. By him the Palla- 
dium was stolen from the same city ; Rhesus, king of 
Thrace, killed, and his horses taken before they had drank 
of the Xanthus. These exploits involved in them the des- 
tiny of Troy ; for had the Trojans preserved them, their 
city could never have been conquered. 

Ulysses contended afterwards with Telamonian Ajax, the 
stoutest of all the Grecians, except Achilles, for the arms 
of that hero, which were awarded to him by the judges, who 
were won by the charms of his eloquence. His other en- 
terprises before Troy were numerous and brilliant, and are 
particularly related in the Iliad. When Ulysses departed 
for Greece, he sailed backwards and forwards for twenty 
years, contrary winds and severe weather opposing his re- 
turn to Ithaca. 

During this period, he extinguished, with a firebrand, the 
eye of Polyphemus ; then sailing to iEolia, he obtained 
from iEolus all the winds which were contrary to him, and 
put them into leathern bags ; his companions, however, be- 
lieving these bags to be full of money, entered into a plot 
to rob him, and accordingly, when they came on the coast of 
Ithaca, untied the bags, upon which the wind rushing out, 
he was again blown back to iEolia. 

When Circe had turned his companions into swine and 
other brutes, he first fortified himself against her charms 
with the herb Moly, an antidote Mercury had given him ; 
and then rushing into her cave with his drawn sword, com- 
pelled her to restore his associates to their original shape. 

He is said to have gone down into hell, to know his fu- 
ture fortune, from the prophet Tiresias. When he sailed 



MYTHOLOGY. 143 

to the islands of the Sirens, he stopped the ears of his com- 
panions, and bound himself with strong ropes to the ship's 
mast, that he might secure himself against the snares into 
which, by their charming voices, passengers were habitual- 
ly allured. Lastly, after his ship was wrecked, he escaped 
by swimming, and came naked and alone, to the port of 
Phaeacia, in the island of Corcyra, where Nausicaa, daugh- 
ter of king Alcinous, found him in a profound sleep, into 
which he was thrown by the indulgence of Minerva. 

When his companions were found, and his ship refitted, 
he bent his course toward Ithaca, where arriving, and hav- 
ing put on the habit of a beggar, he went to his neatherds, 
with whom he found his son Telemachus, and with them 
went home in disguise. After having received several af- 
fronts from the suitors of Penelope, with the assistance of 
his son Telemachus and the neatherds, to whom he had 
discovered himself, he killed Antinous, and the other 
princes who were competitors for her favor. After reign- 
ing some time, he resigned the government of his kingdom 
to Telemachus. 

CASTOR and POLLUX were the twin sons of Jupiter 
and Leda. These brothers entered into an inviolable friend- 
ship, and when they grew up, cleared the Archipelago of 
pirates, on which account they were esteemed deities of the 
sea, and accordingly were invoked by mariners in tempests. 
They went with the other noble youths of Greece in the 
expedition to Colchis, in search of the golden fleece, and 
on all occasions signalized themselves by their courage. 

Tn this expedition Pollux slew Amycus, son of Neptune, 
and king of Bebrycia, who had challenged all the Argo- 
nauts to box with him. This victory, and that which he 
gained afterwards at the Olympic games which Hercules 
celebrated in Elis, caused him to be considered the hero and 
patron of wrestlers, while his brother Castor distinguished 
himself in the race, and in the management of horses. 

Cicero relates a wonderful judgment which happened to 
one Scopas, who had spoken disrespectfully of these divini- 
ties : he was crushed to death by the fall of a chamber, 
whilst Simomdes, who was in the same room, was rescued 
from the danger, being called out a little before, by two 
persons unknown, supposed to be Castor and Pollux. 

The Greek and Roman histories are full of the miracu- 
lous appearance of these brethren ; particularly we are told 
they were seen fighting upon two white horses, at the head 



144 MYTHOLOGY. 

of the Roman army, in the battle between the Romans and 
Latins, near the lake Regillus, and brought the news of the 
decisive victory of Paulus iEmilius to Rome, the very day 
it was obtained. 

Frequent representations of these deities occur on ancient 
monuments, and particularly on consular medals. They 
are exhibited together, each having a helmet, out of which 
issues a flame, and each a pike in one hand, and in the 
other a horse held by the bridle : sometimes they are rep- 
resented as two beautiful youths, completely armed, and 
riding on white horses, with stars over their helmets. 

AJAX, son of Telamon, king of Salamis, by Beriboea, 
was, next to Achilles, the most valiant among the Greeks 
at the seige of Troy. He commanded the troops of Sala- 
mis in that expedition, and performed the various heroic 
actions mentioned by Homer, and Ovid, in the speech of 
Ajax contending for the armor of Achilles. This armor, 
however, being adjudged to his competitor Ulysses, his dis- 
appointment so enraged him, that he immediately became 
mad, and rushed furiously upon a flock of sheep, imagining 
he was killing those who had offended him : but at length 
perceiving his mistake, he became still more furious, and 
stabbed himself with the fatal sword he had received from 
Hector, with whom he had fought. Ajax resembled Achil- 
les in several respects ; like him he was violent, and impa- 
tient of contradiction; and, like him, invulnerable in every 
part of the body except one. 

He has been charged with impiety ; not that he denied 
the gods a very extensive power, but he imagined that, as 
the greatest cowards might conquer through their assist- 
ance, there was no glory in conquering by such aids ; and 
scorned to owe his victory to aught but his own prowess. 
Accordingly, we are told that when he was setting out for 
Troy, his father recommended him always to join the as- 
sistance of the gods to his own valor ; to which Ajax re- 
plied, that cowards themselves were often victorious by such 
helps, but for his own part he would make no reliance of the 
kind, being assured he should be able to conquer without. 

It is further added, upon the head of his irreligion, that 
to Minerva, who once offered him her advice, he replied 
with indignation : "Trouble not yourself about my con- 
duct ; of that I shall give a good account ; you have no- 
thing to do but reserve your favor and assistance for the 
other Greeks." Another time she offered to guide his 



MYTHOLOGY. 145 

chariot in the battle, but he would not suffer her. Nay, 
he even defaced the owl, her favorite bird, which was en- 
graven on his shield, lest that figure should be considered 
as an act of reverence to Minerva, and hence as indicating 
distrust in himself. 

Homer, however, does not represent him in this light, 
for though he does not pray to Jupiter himself when he 
prepares to engage the valiant Hector, yet he desires others 
to pray for him, either in a low voice, lest the Trojans 
should hear, or louder if they pleased ; for, says he, I fear 
no person in the world. 

The poets give to Ajax the same commendation that the 
holy scripture gives to king Saul, with regard to his stature. 
He has been the subject of several tragedies, as well in 
Greek as Latin ; and it is related that the famous come- 
dian, iEsop, refused to act that part. The Greeks paid 
great honor to him after his death, and erected to him a 
noble monument upon the promontory of Rhceteum, which 
was one of those Alexander desired to see and honor. 

JASON was son of iEson, king of Thessaly, and Al- 
cimede. He was an infant when Pelias, his uncle, who 
was left his guardian, sought to destroy him ; but being, to 
avoid the danger, conveyed by his relations to a cave, he 
was there instructed by Chiron in the art of physic ; whence 
he took the name of Jason, or the healer, his former name 
being Diomedes. Arriving at years of maturity, he return- 
ed to his uncle, who, probably with no favorable intention to 
Jason, inspired him with the notion of the Colchian expedi- 
tion and agreeably flattered his ambition with the hopes of 
acquiring the golden fleece. 

Jason having resolved on the voyage, built a vessel at 
Iolchos in Thessaly, for the expedition, under the inspec- 
tion, of Argos, a famous workman, which, from him, was 
called Argo : it was said to have been executed by the advice 
of Pallas, who pointed out a tree in the Dodonaean forest 
for a mast, which was vocal, and had the gift of prophecy. 

The fame of the vessel, the largest that had ever been 
heard of, but particularly the design itself, soon induced 
the bravest and most distinguished youths of Greece to be- 
come adventurers in it, and brought together about fifty of 
the most accomplished young persons of the age to accom- 
pany Jason in this expedition ; authors, however, are not 
agreed on the precise names or numbers of the Argonauts ; 
some state them to have been forty-nine ; others more, and 
amongst them several were of divine origin. 



146 



MYTHOLOGY. 



On his arrival at Colchis he repaired to the court of 
J^etes, from whom he demanded the golden fleece. The 
monarch acceded to his request, provided he could over- 
come the difficulties which lay in his way, and which ap- 
peared not easily surmountable ; these were bulls with bra- 
zen feet, whose nostrils breathed fire, and a dragon which 
guarded the fleece. The teeth of the latter, when killed, 
Jason was enjoined to sow, and, after they had sprung up 
into armed men, to destroy them. 

Though success attended the enterprise, it was less ow- 
ing to valor, than to the assistance of Medea, daughter of 
^Eetes, who, by her enchantments, laid asleep the dragon, 
taught Jason to subdue the bulls, and when he had obtained 
the prize, accompanied him in the night time, unknown to 
her brother. 

The return of the Argonauts is variously related ; some 
contend it was by the track in which they came, and say 
that the brother of Medea pursued them as far as the Adri- 
atic, and was overcome by Jason ; which occasioned the 
story that his sister had cut him in pieces, and strewed his 
limbs in the way, that her father, from solicitude to collect 
them, might be delayed in the pursuit. 



CHAPTER XII. 

Other fabulous personages. 

GRACES or CHARITES. Among the multitude of 
ancient divinities, none had more votaries that the Graces. 
Particular nations and countries had appropriate and local 
deities, but their empire was universal. To their influ- 
ence w r as ascribed all that could please in nature and in art ; 
and to them every rank and profession concurred in offering 
their vows. 

Their number was generally limited, by the ancient 
poets, to three : Euphrosyne, Thalia, and Aglaia ; but 
they differed concerning their origin. Some suppose them 
to have been the offspring of Jupiter and Eunomia, daugh- 
ter of Oceanus ; but the most prevalent opinion is, that 
they were descended from Bacchus and Venus. Accord- 
ing to Homer, Aglaia, the youngest, was married to Vul- 
can, and another of them to the god of Sleep. The Gra- 
ces were companions of Mercury, Venus, and the Muses. 



MYTHOLOGY. 



147 



Festivals were celebrated in honor of them throughout 
the whole year. They were esteemed the dispensers of 
liberality, eloquence, and wisdom ; and from them were 
derived simplicity of manners, a graceful deportment, and 
gaiety of disposition. From their inspiring acts of grat- 
itude and mutual kindness they were described as uniting 
hand in hand with each other. The ancients partook of but 
few repasts without invoking them, as well as the Muses. 

SIRENS were a kind of fabulous beings represented by 
some as sea-monsters, with the faces of women and the 
tails of fishes, answering the description of mermaids ; and 
by others said to have the upper parts of a woman, and the 
under parts of a bird. Their number is not determined ; 
Homer reckons only two; others five, namely, Leucosia, 
Ligeia, Parthenope, Aglaophon, and Molpe ; others admit 
only the three first. 

The poets represent them as beautiful women inhabiting 
the rocks on the sea-shore, whither having allured passen- 
gers by the sweetness of their voices, they put them to death. 
Virgil places them on rocks where vessels are in danger of 
shipwreck ; Pliny makes them inhabit the promontory of 
Minerva, near the island Capreae ; others fix them in Sicily, 
near cape Pelorus. 

Claudian says they inhabited harmonious rocks, that 
they were charming monsters, and that sailors were wreck- 
ed on their coasts without regret, and even expired in rap- 
ture. This description is doubtless founded on a literal ex- 
plication of the fable, that the Sirens were women who inhab- 
ited the shores of Sicily, and who, by the allurements of plea- 
sure, stopped passengers, and made them forget their course. 

Ovid says they accompanied Proserpine when she was 
carried off, and that the gods granted them wings to go 
in quest of that goddess. Homer places the Sirens in the 
midst of a meadow drenched in blood, and tells us that 
fate had permitted them to reign till some person should 
over-reach them ; that the wise Ulysses accomplished their 
destiny, having escaped their snares, by stopping the ears 
of his companions with wax, and causing himself to be 
fastened to the mast of his ship, which, he adds, plunged 
them into so deep despair, that they drowned themselves in 
the sea, where they were transformed into fishes from the 
waist downwards. 

Others, who do not look for so much mystery in this 
fable, maintain that the Sirens were nothing but certain 



148 MYTHOLOGY. 

straits in the sea, where the waves whirling furiously around 
seized and swallowed up vessels that approached them. 
Lastly, some hold the Sirens to have been certain shores 
and promontories, where the winds, by various reverbera- 
tions and echoes, cause a kind of harmony that surprises 
and stops passengers. This probably might be the origin 
of the Sirens' song, and the occasion of giving the name of 
Sirens to those rocks. 

Some interpreters of the ancient fables contend, that the 
number and names of the three Sirens were taken from 
the triple pleasure of the senses, wine, love, and music, 
which are the three most powerful means of seducing man- 
kind ; and hence so many exhortations to avoid the Sirens' 
fatal song; and probably it was hence that the Greeks 
obtained their etymology of Siren from a Greek word sig- 
nifying a chain, as if there were no getting free from their 
enticement. 

But if in tracing this fable to its source, we take Servius 
as our guide, he tells us that it derived its origin from cer- 
tain princesses who reigned of old upon the coasts of the 
Tuscan sea, near Pelorus and Caprea, or in three small isl- 
ands of Sicily which Aristotle calls the isles of the Sirens. 
These women were very debauched, and by their charms 
allured strangers, who were ruined in their court, by pleas- 
ure and prodigality. 

This seems evidently the foundation of all that Homer 
says of the Sirens, in the twelfth book of the Odyssey ; 
that they bewitched those who unfortunately listened 
to their songs; that they detained them in capacious 
meadows, where nothing was to be seen but bones and 
carcasses withering in the sun ; that none who visit them 
ever again enjoy the embraces and congratulations of 
their wives and children ; and that all who dote upon 
their charms are doomed to perish. What Solomon says 
in the ninth chapter of Proverbs, of the miseries to which 
those are exposed who abandon themselves to sensual pleas- 
ures, well justifies the idea given us of the Sirens by the 
Greek poets, and by Virgil's commentator. 



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